


Better Together

by helsinkibaby



Series: Together [1]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Kid Fic, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-20 09:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,564
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16134851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: For the last seven years, Ellie Bishop has been raising her daughter on her own and doing just fine.For the last seven years, Nick Torres has been raising his daughter on his own and doing just fine.But when their daughters become friends and Ellie and Nick start spending time together, they realise that on their own, they might be fine.But they’re better together.





	Better Together

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Artwork for Better Together](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16108862) by [angelus2hot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelus2hot/pseuds/angelus2hot). 



Ellie would be the first to admit she’s a creature of habit, someone who doesn’t like to step outside her comfort zone. She’s been like that all her life and in the last seven years, it’s only become more of a thing for her. After all, she’s a single mom now and she knows that kids need stability and if she can’t give her kid a dad, at least she can give her that. So, Monday to Friday, she works at the NSA. Saturday and Sunday, they know not to call unless it’s absolutely urgent, and only then if she can work from home - those are the days that she blesses the technological advancements of the twenty first century. On the weekends, she cooks, she cleans, she takes Jess to different places, or sometimes they just stay in and they bake or they paint or they read or they snuggle up on the couch and watch Disney movies. 

It’s a good life. They’re happy, just the two of them. 

Well, mostly happy. And that caveat only comes into play during the times when Ellie worries about Jess. Well, she worries about Jess all the time, that’s just part of being a mom. But when she sees how quiet Jess is, how much she loves her books and her reading and her solitude, it reminds Ellie way too much of what she was like as a child. And while she knows she turned out pretty okay, there were more than a few tough days in between where she remembers wishing more than anything else that she had a good friend to talk to. 

So when Jess starts talking about a girl called Mila that her teacher paired her up with for a project, Ellie listens. When Jess tells her about how she and Mila were playing with some other girls that Mila knows at recess and they teamed up and won, Ellie smiles. 

And when Jess begs to join soccer because Mila plays and she swears it’s fun, Ellie says yes and wonders if she’s lost her mind. 

She wonders that again when she’s actually sitting at the edge of a soccer field, elbows on her knees, keeping a close eye on Jess. Not in all her daughter’s seven years has she ever shown an interest for sports and she’s standing on the sidelines, chewing her lower lip, her long blonde pigtails swaying as she looks around her. All the other little girls seem to know one another, are laughing in small groups and Ellie’s stomach lurches as she tries very hard not to have flashbacks to herself at that same age. 

Then, as she watches, something happens. Jess’s face breaks open in one of the biggest smiles she’s ever seen - bigger than even Christmas morning in Oklahoma when her three uncles spoil her rotten - and she waves enthusiastically across the field. Ellie follows her gaze, feels a smile coming to her own lips as she sees another little girl, hair also in pigtails, an identically wide smile on her face. The two girls meet one another halfway, throw their arms around each other in a hug that has the two of them bouncing up and down. Ellie can hear their peals of giggles travelling across the field and she has to cover her lips with her hands to keep her own laughter in. 

So, this is the famous Mila. 

As she watches, the two girls separate and Mila takes Jess’s hand and leads her back in the direction she’d come. There’s a man standing there watching them with an expression on his face that pretty much sums up how Ellie is feeling and his smile broadens as Mila chats away a mile a minute to him. And, in a move that stuns Ellie, Jess - her quiet, shy little girl, who more often than not hides behind Ellie when meeting new people - grins up at him and talks the exact same way. Her pigtails bob up and down as she nods her head, then she spins around and points right where Ellie is sitting. When she sees Ellie looking down at them, she waves and Ellie waves back, feels her cheeks heating at being caught staring. But then, she thinks, it’s probably allowed when your daughter is talking to a man you’ve never met. 

It’s definitely allowed, she thinks, when the man looks like that. 

Not overly tall, he’s well-built, moves with a confidence and assurance up the bleachers towards where Ellie is sitting. Like her, he’s dressed casually, jeans and sneakers, a dark cotton t-shirt under a beat-up brown jacket. The grin that was there when he was looking at the girls never wavers and it’s matched by the light in his eyes as he looks down at Ellie. “So I’m going out on a limb and saying you must be Jess’s mom?” he says, like Jess hasn’t just pointed her out, like he hadn’t caught her watching them. 

“And you must be Mila’s dad.” Ellie greets him in kind and he shrugs as he drops down onto the bleachers beside her. 

“That’s me. Also known as Nick.” 

He holds out his hand and she accepts it, shakes it firmly. “Ellie,” she says. “Nice to meet you.” 

“You too. Mila’s been talking about Jess for weeks, it’s nice to put a face to the name.” His gaze wanders across the field, finds the two girls at the end of a long line. “How long has she been playing soccer?” 

Ellie wrinkles her nose, trying to find a polite way to answer. “Oh, about...” She checks her watch. “Thirty seconds or so?” The look Nick turns on her is one of pure surprise and she shrugs. “Mila talked her into coming out here. Said it was the best game and she’d love it.” 

Nick is nodding, looking very amused. “Mila can be... quite persuasive when she wants to be.” He tilts his head, looks her up and down and Ellie fights the urge to sit up a little straighter, wishes she’d taken more care with her hair. Or at least applied a little make up. Which she chides herself for when she looks down and catches sight of his wedding ring. Off limits, she tells herself firmly, so firmly that she nearly misses his next question. “So... how much does Jess actually know about soccer?” 

Ellie bites the inside of her cheek. “About as much as I do,” she admits and she hopes he’ll leave it at that. 

Vain hope and he must guess where she’s going with this because his lips twitch as he asks, “And how much would that be?”

Narrowing her eyes, Ellie tilts her head, theatrically considering the question. “The ball is round, right?”

Nick is silent for about three seconds. Then he laughs loudly enough that heads turn in their direction. He doesn’t appear to either notice or care, continues to laugh as he nods his head. Ellie grins at his obvious enjoyment of her joke and when his laughter subsides, he looks back at the field. “Then I take it you won’t be offended, or accuse me of mansplaining if I point out a few things?”

Ellie’s response is both heartfelt and immediate. “Oh, bless you.” Once upon a time, she would have spent the last few days reading every book she could find on the rules and tactics of soccer, but that was before she had a job to do, a daughter to raise, an apartment to clean, meals to cook, all the million and one jobs she had to do on any given day. 

So she spends the next hour listening to Nick as he points out what’s happening on the field, fills her in on the whys and wherefores, answers her many questions with patience and smiles and in terms she can understand. 

It’s the most fun she’s had in a long time. 

Except for when practice is over and Jess bounces up to her, throws her arms around Ellie’s waist, squealing, “Mommy, that was fun!” because seeing her daughter so happy is everything to her. 

Ellie laughs and hugs her back but it’s Nick who speaks. “So, you’ll come back next week, Jess?” 

Jess nods so quickly and enthusiastically that Ellie’s half afraid her head’s going to come right off. It makes her laugh, makes Nick laugh too and his eyes are warm when he looks over at Ellie. “I’ll see you next week, Ellie.” 

Ellie grins, reminds herself once again that he’s married and off limits. “See you then.” 

That’s how the next few Saturdays go, Jess and Mila working on their soccer skills, Nick and Ellie sitting in the stands watching. Sometimes they talk about what’s happening on the field in front of them, sometimes it’s about Mila and Jess and school and funny things that have happened during the week. 

And because Ellie is an NSA analyst who is trained to observe patterns, she can’t help but notice that Nick never mentions a wife, that his choice of pronouns is always “I” and never “we.” She doesn’t ask about it of course - Barbara Bishop had drummed better manners than that into her only daughter - but she does wonder about it. It’s Jess who provides her with the answer, one day when they’re sitting at the dinner table, Jess doing her homework, Ellie keeping a close eye on her handwriting. Out of nowhere, as only a seven year old can, Jess says, “Did you know Mila’s just like me? Because I don’t have a daddy, and Mila doesn’t have a mommy.” 

There’s a lot to unpack in that sentence and despite her curiosity, Ellie starts with what she sees as the more pressing part. “You do have a daddy, sweetheart,” she reminds her. “We just don’t all live together, that’s all. And he works in London now so it’s hard to get him on the phone because the time is different there.” She might have led Jess to believe that the time difference is significantly more than it actually is. She doesn’t like lying to Jess but at the same time, she can’t bring herself to regret it. 

“I know.” Jess tilts her head, scrunches her nose up in thought. “And it’s not the same as Mila. Her mommy was very sick when she was a little baby and she had to go to Heaven.” 

“Oh.” Ellie’s not quite sure what to say to that. 

“Mila doesn’t remember her,” Jess continues. “Just like I don’t remember my daddy.” Ellie sucks in a deep breath, clenches her fist so tightly that her nails bite into her palm, stands up and busies herself with checking on the food cooking in the oven, pushing back the sudden tears that threaten to overwhelm her. Thankfully, Jess doesn’t seem to notice anything amiss and she’s distracted by her inability to spell a word she needs to complete her homework and that, at least, is something that puts Ellie on suddenly firmer ground, allowing her to swallow her emotions as she focuses on the task at hand. That’s what she’s good at after all. 

*

A couple of weeks after that, her Saturday morning is following its usual routine. Wake up, shower, get Jess up and have breakfast, off out the door to soccer practice. Nick beats her there that week and she smiles as she sees him, climbs the bleachers to sit beside him and commence their usual chat about the week that’s just passed. 

What’s unusual is that this week her phone rings not ten minutes into the conversation. 

Even more unusual, her boss’s name is on the display. 

She bites her lip because she knows this can mean nothing good and when she steps away from Nick, presses the phone to her ear, she knows she was right the second that she hears Flynn’s voice. He doesn’t let her get a word in edgewise as he tells her about an increase in chatter in the northern sector of Pakistan, the sector she’s been monitoring all week. Which usually means something and since she’s the resident expert on it, they need her in. Now. He hangs up before she can say anything about Jess and childcare and needing to figure out what she’s going to do with her daughter and Ellie closes her eyes, pinches the bridge of her nose as she tries to stop her head from spinning. 

“Everything ok?” She jumps a little at the voice close behind her. When she turns, Nick is standing there, his brow furrowed, his eyes serious. He steps back and holds his hands up as he realises he startled her. “Sorry.” 

“It’s ok.” She presses her lips together. “That was my boss. He needs me to come in. Right now.” 

Nick frowns. “It can’t wait?” 

Ellie shakes her head. “When the NSA say now, it’s usually pretty important.” She lets out a long breath. “I’ll just have to take Jess with me, I’ll find something to keep her busy...”

“That’s crazy.” Nick’s looking at her like she has ten heads. “She can stay with me and Mila until you’re done, they’ll have a great time.” 

She’s floored by the offer, by the way it was made, straight from the heart, no time taken to think about it at all. “I couldn’t impose...”

He actually laughs at that. “Are you kidding me? It’s not imposing, Mila would love to have Jess over.” 

“She doesn’t have a change of clothes...”

He looks across at the pitch and Ellie follows his gaze, sees the two girls standing side by side giggling, heads close together. “They’re practically the same size,” he points out. “I’m pretty sure she’ll find something in Mila’s wardrobe to change into.” 

Ellie bites her lip, knowing she’s crazy to be hesitating. Nick takes the choice out of her hand, literally, when he reaches out and takes her phone. It’s still unlocked and he calls up the keypad, taps in a number. A phone rings and he pulls one out of his jacket, taps to end the call. “Here,” he says. “Now you have my number. Let me know when you’re finished at work, I’ll text you my address, you can pick her up then.” 

Her fingers close around the phone and she nods. “Thank you,” she says and he grins. 

“Take your time,” he tells her. “After all, it is a matter of national security.” 

She flashes him a quick grin before she goes down to the pitch, calls Jess over and explains what’s going on. Mila follows her over like a shadow and the squeal that the girls let out when they realise Jess is going to Mila’s house could quite possibly be heard in outer space. 

Nick’s laughter is a good deal further away but when she glances back at him and sees him hiding his lips with his hand, she fancies she can hear it anyway. 

It makes her smile but that smile fades the closer she gets to the NSA headquarters and by the time she’s at her desk, getting reamed out by Flynn for not getting there any sooner, it’s gone altogether. It doesn’t come back either, not when she spends the rest of the day combing through transcripts of intel, translating from Pashto to English as she goes. She works through lunch, which doesn’t help matters, and between the translating and the caffeine, her head is throbbing by the time she finally gets to text Nick and tell him she’s ready to leave. She winces when she sees the time on her cell phone screen - it’s later than she thought, almost dinner time in fact - but the first response she gets back is a thumbs up emoji, followed by a smiley face. Almost immediately after that, he sends her his address which she plugs into Google Maps and starts to drive. 

By the time she pulls up in the driveway of the modest two storey house, she’s so tired she can barely see straight and all she wants to do is go home and go to bed. The house does lift her spirits somewhat - it’s just the kind of house she’d love for herself, small garden neatly tended, steps leading up to the front door. In fact, she and Jake had looked at some houses not a million miles away from here when they’d first got married but they’d never got around to buying one, Jake never having found “the right one.” Years later, she knows he wasn’t just talking about the house, but today she finds the thought doesn’t sting like it once did.

"I'm so sorry." They are the first words that leave her mouth when Nick opens his front door to her, and the words keep spilling out, even when it registers with her that he doesn't look angry or even the slightest bit annoyed with her. Instead he initially looks taken aback, blinking in surprise. Then a smile plays around the edges of his lips as he listens to her babble on and on. "I tried to get out sooner but every time I thought I was getting somewhere, someone put another pile of paper on my desk, and seriously, it's 2018, you'd think that most of this stuff should be done on computer but-"

"Ellie." Her name on his lips is firm but there's a definite tinge of amusement there when he speaks. "Take a breath, ok? And come inside." He steps back to let her in and it's her turn to listen as he's the one who keeps on talking. "In case you can't work out from the cackling that's going on up there-" He points up the stairs and the sound of two girls shrieking with laughter really can't be described as anything else. "Our girls have kept themselves thoroughly occupied for the entire afternoon. I've barely even seen them since lunch." He tilts his head, narrows his eyes but she can tell he's only doing it for comedic effect. "I don't know what kind of state Mila's room and the playroom are in, but hey, that's what Sundays are for, right?" He looks back at her then, looks her up and down. "Let me take your coat." 

Ellie shakes her head, holds up one hand. "I won't impose on you any more-" she begins but Nick isn't having any of that either. 

"Did you just hear a single word I said?" Again, there's no rancour in the tone at all and she can't help but compare how he said those words to all the times Jake had said something like that. Which she knows isn't fair and isn't appropriate but she can't help where her brain goes, especially when she's tired. "Jess was no trouble... she's a great kid." 

"Thank you." She doesn't know if it's the words or the smile that makes the tension seep from her shoulders but she finds herself smiling too. "But really... we should get going." 

His next words floor her. "Look, why don't you stay for dinner?" Her shock must show on her face because he adds quickly, "It's honestly no trouble... when I didn't hear from you, I figured I'd be feeding Jess as well and I always make plenty - we have a very well stocked freezer for the nights that I don't feel like cooking." He leans in, almost conspiratorially. "Besides, the girls are looking forward to it... I think we might have a riot if you tried to take Jess home now. And while I don't always give in to the whims of my seven year old daughter, I believe in picking my battles, and Saturday evening dinner time is not one of them." 

Put that way, Ellie can only nod. Fighting with Jess over going home is frankly more than she can take right now and the ability to pull a meal together is definitely beyond her. Whatever Nick is cooking has to be better than emergency mac and cheese from a box. "That sounds great." She lets him take her coat, watches as he hangs it up on the coat rack in the corner before leading her into the kitchen. The second she walks into the room, any thoughts she might have had about leaving fly straight out of her head. "Oh my god, that smells amazing." 

The smile on Nick's face can only be described as smug and while usually Ellie wouldn't like that, she thinks it's well earned. Still, his next words are totally at odds with the look on his face. "It's nothing special," he tells her. "A little ropa vieja... throw everything into the pot, put it over a low heat and let it do its magic..." He walks over to the stove and lifts the lid, sniffs appreciatively. Ellie follows, like a moth drawn to a flame, her mouth watering the closer she gets to it. "I'm guessing you skipped lunch?" 

There's no point denying it, so she doesn't. "I'm starving," she admits and he motions towards one of the stools beside the breakfast bar. His other hand opens one of the lower cabinets, pulls out a loaf of crusty white bread. "If you tell me that's homemade, I may never leave." 

"Strictly store bought," he says and he almost sounds apologetic. "I can cook, but not bake. Mila died of shame every time I made something to donate to a bake sale; now we go to the store the night before." As he talks, he pulls out a knife and begins slicing the bread, placing several thick slices on a plate and putting them in front of her. A butter knife and butter dish appear next. "Dig in," he tells her. "Dinner won't be too much longer." 

"What's in it?" she asks as she reaches for the bread, hungry enough to consider eating it dry. 

"Trying to steal my recipe?" He glances back over his shoulder as he stirs the pot, his eyes twinkling and Ellie's stomach flips. Hunger, she tells herself firmly. Definitely hunger. "We have shredded beef, tomatoes, peppers, a little garlic, a little wine, definitely not enough to get those two upstairs any more giddy than they already are..." As he says that, there's a thump from upstairs that makes Ellie look around sharply. He doesn't react at all, and when there's no further noise, no shriek of pain, no screams or tears, Ellie looks back to see him looking calm as you like. "We're serving it with white rice... I hope that's ok?" 

"Sounds good to me." Ellie takes a bite from the bread, chews it slowly. A glass of water is presented to her as she does so and when she swallows, she looks at him pulling plates from the drawer and laying them out on the counter nearest the stove. 

"Thank you," she says quietly and he glances back over his shoulder again, this time with a shrug. 

"I couldn't let you starve," he tells her with that same crooked grin that she's become so familiar with from soccer games and practices. For some reason, a lump rises in her throat and she has to look down quickly before it's too obvious. Nick either doesn't notice or knows better than to comment on it because he walks by her, goes to the bottom of the stairs and calls up, "Dinner's ready, girls." 

The clatter of feet on the stairs makes Ellie wince, the headaches of work not being strictly metaphorical. She still manages a smile when Mila and Jess burst into the room, full of chat and laughter and a hug from Jess that does wonders for her mood. Nick tells Mila to lay the table and Jess offers to help, something that amazes Ellie because there's no way Jess would be making that offer if they were at home. Yet there she is, her shy little girl chattering away, looking completely in her element. 

Dinner tastes as good as it smells and Ellie cleans her plate. She shakes her head when Nick offers seconds, but half-heartedly, not wanting to appear greedy. Nick can tell though, stands and ladles another spoonful onto her plate, another on to his too. The girls have already finished and Mila asks if they can be excused. Nick looks at Ellie, one eyebrow raised, before he answers and it's only when she nods that he says yes. The girls leave the room the same way they entered it, full of giggles and chat and Ellie nods as Nick holds up the water jug, watches as he refills her glass. 

"I definitely owe you one," she tells him as he places the jug back on the table and she's not surprised when he shakes his head. She's figured out by now that Nick's not the flashy type, doesn't do things because he expects bouquets showered in his direction. He just does things because he thinks they're the right thing to do, does them because he can't imagine not doing them.

"Ellie, I really didn't do anything special," he tells her. "Mila's been begging me to let Jess come over for weeks now. I've been meaning to talk to you about it, but you know how it is..." He shrugs again and she can't argue with that. "Seriously, any time you need someone to watch her, let me know."

"You may regret saying that." Ellie's lips twist as she finishes the last of her meal, places the fork down on her plate. 

"Nah." There's not a flicker of doubt in his voice. "Besides, it's a change for me to have some adult company here... my sister, she helps out when she can, but a lot of my buddies, they don't have kids yet, and the ones that do, they're at the baby and toddler stage so it's a bit different." 

"It's nice you have your sister around," she says. "My family are all back in Oklahoma." 

Nick lifts one eyebrow. "You're a long way from home," he observes. 

It's not the first time Ellie's heard that. "Not a lot of NSA outposts in Oklahoma," she points out, her usual response. 

Something in the way Nick is looking at her tells her even before he speaks that she's not going to get her usual answer. "What about Jess's dad?" he asks and she doesn't mean to do it, she really doesn't, but she knows her face slams shut, feels the tension slam through her back, up across her shoulders. One of Nick's hands flies up, palm facing her as if in apology. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"No, it's ok." Ellie forces herself to relax. The man has taken care of her daughter all afternoon, he's fed them both and you can take the girl out of the South but you can't take the South out of the girl; Barbara Bishop would be appalled if she could see her acting like this. Her mother had never liked Jake, even before things fell apart. "Jake is a lawyer who works for the NSA as well... it's actually how we met." Her girlfriends had always loved the story of how they met; even thinking of it now turns her stomach. "We were dating, things were going well... and then I got pregnant." 

Nick's eyes grow wide as saucers. Well, she knew she was going to surprise him with that. "Unexpected, I take it?" 

For once, the memory of Jake's reaction makes her laugh. "Very. Jake was... not enthusiastic. But I knew... I wanted to keep the baby. So we went to Oklahoma and Jake met my parents... and my three brothers. And when we got back home, he proposed." 

Nick narrows his eyes, tilts his head. "Shotgun wedding?" 

"I'm sure there wasn't an actual shotgun involved." Although, her brothers had taken Jake out onto the back porch for a talk, and Jake had looked pretty shaken when he'd come back inside. "Maybe the threat of one. I don't know. Anyway, we got married... but I think I knew Jake's heart wasn't really in it. Jess was four months old when I found out he was screwing around on me. I wanted to try, wanted to give things another chance... but he didn't." 

She looks up from the table where she's worrying the place mat with her thumb and what she sees in Nick's eyes makes her startle. He looks disgusted, almost angry. "Where is he now?" 

Ellie sighs, wondering not for the first time how she'd got things so wrong. "The NSA assigned him to London four years ago... he's hardly seen her since." 

"He's a jerk." Nick's quiet voice brooks no argument, shows no doubt. "I've never understood how someone could do something like that. And Jess... you're raising a terrific kid there." 

A lump rises up in Ellie's throat and she takes a sip of her water to wash it down. "What about Mila's mom?" she asks, although she knows a little of the story already. "Jess told me that she passed away?" 

Nick nods, a shadow flitting over his face. "We were high school sweethearts, did she tell you that?" Ellie's surprised, shakes her head because she can't think of any high school sweethearts she's ever known who have had happy marriages and are still together. "We actually were best friends since we were five years old... inseparable. Then I looked at her across the cafeteria one day, and that was it. I knew she was the one I was going to marry." His voice is soft, his eyes far away. "She was diagnosed with cancer the first time during our senior year. And she fought it... man, she fought it like a tiger. She was stubborn, my Sofia... Mila didn't lick it off a stamp, you know?" He pauses, as if he's sorting through the words he needs. "She went into remission and we thought we were home free. Got engaged, got married, big wedding, both sides of both families... and they'd said, after the treatment, that it would be a miracle if she ever had kids. So when we found out she was expecting Mila, it was like Christmas and both our birthdays all at once." But he doesn't look happy and his next words show her why. "And two weeks after we found out she was pregnant with a home test, the blood test from the doctor's office told us that the cancer was back." 

Ellie literally feels like her stomach drops onto the floor. She covers her mouth with her fingers, hardly able to form words. "Oh Nick..." 

"So we had a choice. Treat Sofia, treat the cancer, save her... but if we do that, the baby dies. No question. Or we wait until the kid's born. Roll the dice, see what happens. Sofia went for option two. We went back and forth... I was so scared of losing her. But like I say, she was stubborn. Wouldn't be talked out of it. She wanted that baby... more than anything. When Mila was born... you've never seen a happier mother. But the cancer..." He visibly shudders. "It went right through her. But she had six months with her." He meets her gaze then and she has to look down, runs a finger under each eye and hopes that he won't say anything. 

Her luck holds because he continues, "That's why we named her Mila. Short for Milagros." 

Spanish happens to be one of the six languages Ellie speaks and she knows he knows that. "Miracles," she murmurs. 

"Yep. Sofia chose it... said she'd had more than her share of miracles... surviving the first cancer, getting pregnant with Mila in the first place, getting to spend that time with her... she said she wouldn't change a thing." 

"She sounds incredible."

"She was." Nick's eyes flick to the open door and the stairs beyond. "I am a lucky man. And if I forget, I have Mila to remind me." Ellie smiles and he gives her a look. "That's not me being sappy, by the way. Mila literally reminds me. Every chance she gets." 

He's being serious, Ellie knows that. Yet she laughs until more tears come into her eyes. 

The girls are still having a great time upstairs so she helps Nick tidy up the kitchen, even though he insists that no guest should be doing it. They talk the whole time, easy conversation and while Ellie knows she's not one to open up easily - to borrow a phrase of Nick's, Jess did not lick that much off a stamp - she finds herself opening up to Nick the same way that Jess opens up to his daughter. It's easy to talk to him, she finds, easy to be around him because he understands so much of what she's going through with Jess, how hard it is to be a single parent, how lonely it can be when there's no-one else there to help out, to talk stuff through with, even just to talk to someone at the end of the day when the kid is in bed and you finally have some time to yourself. Standing in his kitchen, drying dishes as he washes them, she feels more relaxed than she has in weeks. 

Maybe that's why she accepts his offer of a coffee, lets him lead her into his living room and the oh-so-comfortable couch there. On her way to it, she can't help but notice the pictures dotted around the place of a younger Nick, his familiar smile looking even brighter, accompanied in most of them by a woman with long dark hair and Mila's smile. "Your wife?" she asks and he nods, his smile dimming, his eyes far away. 

"I went through a phase, after she died, of putting them all away. Too much of a reminder, you know?"

Ellie screws up her eyes. "After I got divorced, my mom came to stay for a few days... the third day she was there, she took Jess out for a walk and I got every picture of Jake I could find and burned it in a trash can." Which had been damn satisfying until the smoke alarm had begun to blare. "So yeah, I get that." She tilts her head, considers it again. "Though probably not the same thing." 

"Not quite." But Nick seems to find the whole thing funny, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. "But eventually, I figured out that the pictures weren't only for me... Mila needs to know who her mom was. And I..." He heaved a deep sigh. "I needed to remember the good times." He drops down on the couch, his eyes on the photograph on the mantelpiece, him and Sofia on their wedding day. "It took a while... but I got there." 

"She was beautiful." Ellie sits down beside him, leaving a good tract of space between them. She sees him nod out of the corner of her eye. "Mila has her smile." 

"Yeah, she does." He looks over at Ellie then, and there's a faintly appraising look on his face. "Unlike Jess... who as near as I can see could have been cloned from you. Is there any of her dad's DNA in there at all?"

"Let's hope not." The words are out before Ellie can think about them, certainly before she can stop them. They hang in the air for a moment and then Nick's eyes grow as wide as saucers and his mouth makes a perfect circle and Ellie claps her hand over her lips and wants the ground to open up and swallow her whole. "Please don't tell anyone I said that." 

"Oh, your secret is safe with me," Nick assures her. Moving on, he continues, "But seriously, that's how I knew you were Jess's mom that first day at soccer... she looks just like you." 

Ellie grimaces. "And there I thought it was my complete lack of knowledge of the game giving me away."

"Well, that too." Nick doesn't miss a beat and Ellie laughs again. "But mostly the other thing." He waits for her laughter to subside before asking, "So, not a soccer fan then?"

"Not really a fan of many sports, to be honest. I was always more of a bookworm growing up," she tells him, and that leads them into a conversation about childhood hobbies, which leads into stories about high school and college and Ellie feels like she could stay like this forever. She does catch herself yawning a couple of times, feels her cheeks flush as she makes a quip about needing more coffee before she drives home. Nick is on his feet in a second, heading out to refill her cup and Ellie shifts slightly on the even more comfortable than she first thought couch and closes her eyes as she waits for him to get back. 

When she opens her eyes again, it's because she heard a noise in the kitchen and she sits upright, blinks stupidly as she looks around her. The room is the room she was expecting to see, the Torres living room. But it was getting dark when she was sitting here talking to Nick and sipping coffee that had evidently failed its mission to keep her awake, because now sunlight is streaming through the blinds. There's a throw blanket covering her that she remembers noticing on the back of the couch last night and when she sits up, looks at her watch, she discovers it's almost eight o'clock in the morning. Adrenaline born of pure shock and embarrassment courses through her system, banishing the last of her sleepiness and she pushes herself to a standing position, walks into the kitchen where she sees Nick standing at the refrigerator, pulling out a carton of eggs.

"Morning, sleepyhead," he says, as if it's the most natural thing in the world for her to be there, still clad in her Saturday soccer mom casual clothes while he's wearing a pair of faded sweatpants and a Miami Dolphins t-shirt. "You sleep ok?" 

Ellie shakes her head, pushes her hair back off her face with both hands, holding it in place as she laces her fingers together. "I can't believe I did that." 

Nick shrugs, deposits the eggs on the counter and walks over to the breakfast bar. "I could tell you were beat the second I opened the front door," he tells her. "I hoped my wonderful company would be enough to keep you awake, but apparently not." His lips twitch and she knows him well enough to know that he's teasing her. She still opens her mouth to apologise but he beats her to it, continues more gently, more seriously, "Hey, don't, ok? You just slept damn near twelve hours. On my couch. You wouldn't have done that unless you really needed to." 

The thing is, he's not wrong and she sighs, conceding the point without words. "Where's Jess?" she asks instead and he chuckles softly as he turns towards the coffee machine. There are already two mugs standing beside it and he fills them both as he answers her. 

"Mila has a double bed in her room, for when my niece Amanda babysits. I gave her a spare toothbrush, a pair of Mila's pyjamas and once they settled down, she was out like a light in no time." A pause and she knows what he's going to say next. "Like mother, like daughter." He comes back towards her, holds out one of the mugs to her and she takes it from him carefully. Her fingers brush against his and she swears a jolt of electricity zaps up her spine. If he noticed it, if he felt anything like it, he doesn't say anything, continues with barely a pause, "Though I gotta say, it took a bit of work to get them to actually turn the light off... they were pretty stoked with the impromptu sleepover."

"I bet." Ellie takes a sip of her coffee, closes her eyes as it slips down her throat. It's perfect, made just how she likes it. 

"They only quietened down after I told them that if they woke you up, Jess would have to go home." Nick's voice sounds further away and when she opens her eyes, she sees that he's over at the other side of the kitchen, his back to her. He's opening the carton of eggs, concentrating very hard on it. "That did the trick." 

Ellie takes another sip of her coffee, finds it makes her feel marginally more human. "Where would we be without bribery and threats?" she wonders and there's a chuckle from the other side of the room. 

"Nowhere good," Nick allows. The carton of eggs open, he looks over his shoulder at her, blinks when he sees her rising to her feet. "Scrambled eggs ok? Or would you prefer an omelette?" She opens her mouth to reply but before she can say anything, he holds up one finger. "And don't tell me I don't have to cook you breakfast. Sunday breakfasts are my speciality."

Holding up the hand that's not holding the mug of coffee, Ellie widens her eyes in surrender. "Scrambled eggs are fine with me. I'm not sure that Jess will eat them though. She can be a little picky sometimes." After their conversation last night, she wants to say that that's part of Jake's DNA coming out, but she doesn't want to think about her ex right now, pushes the thought far away. "And I was going to offer to help." 

Nick looks chastened. "You don't have to," he says and she opens her mouth to contradict him. He rolls his eyes before she can. "But cutlery is in the top drawer over there... plates in the bottom cabinet." He sounds pretty smug when he adds, "And believe me, Ellie... Jess has never tried my scrambled eggs. She'll clean her plate." 

Ellie wants to say, "We'll see," because she knows her daughter but a voice in the back of her head that sounds very much like her mother reminding her that she's still a guest in his home stops her. 

It's a good thing too because, just like he predicted, Jess cleans her plate when Ellie knows for a fact that had she given her the exact same meal at home, half of it would have gone into the bin. Nick's smile is even more smug as she helps him clean up and he sing-songs, "Told you so," under his breath as he walks past her. 

It's a struggle to get Jess to actually leave and they've barely started their journey home when Jess says, "That was fun, Mom... can we do it again?" 

"We'll see," Ellie says, trying to ignore how much she likes the sound of that. 

*

There's a shift to their communications after that weekend, starting on the Sunday evening when Jess is in bed and Ellie is sitting on the couch, trying to read a book and failing utterly because her mind keeps going back to Nick's smile, the way he laughed over things that Mila and Jess were saying, the fond look on his face as he ruffled Mila's hair. It could also be her imagination but her couch doesn't seem as comfortable as Nick's either. 

She almost groans when her cell phone vibrates. "If this is work..." she mutters to herself, very tempted not to pick it up but knowing that National Security doesn't care if her daughter is asleep in bed. To her surprise, it's Nick's name that she sees at the top of the message. "The house is suddenly a lot quieter tonight," she reads, followed by a winky smiling emoji. As she watches, a series of three dots appears underneath it and she waits for the second message to come through. "Not that I'm saying you snore," it reads and she laughs softly to herself. 

"I'll forgive you just this once," she sends back. Then, after a moment, "Thanks for everything. I really appreciate it."

"Any time," he replies with another one of those winking emojis and she knows that he doesn't really mean it. It's just something that people say when they do something nice to help someone out. She doesn't expect anything from him so she sends back a smiley face emoji and leaves it at that. 

Except that the next night, he sends her another text message, complaining about how a seven year old's English homework really shouldn't be so difficult. She sends one back sympathising and before she knows it, they're trading messages about their days. 

The following night, she's the one who messages him with a question about soccer practice the next day. It turns out that it's an hour earlier than usual and he offers to pick Jess up from daycare and bring her with him and Jess because she knows she won't be able to get off work early but he's already asked his boss and organised it. 

When she gets to soccer practice, he's already there, greets her with a warm smile and shifts on the bleachers to make room for her. She tries not to notice some of the second looks she gets from some of the other moms and she almost succeeds. It gets a little easier when she's actually sitting down beside him because it's hard to be so close to Nick and not look at him. And no, she doesn't say that out loud, she does have some semblance of dignity. So she sits down beside him and he tells her about what's been going on in practice, points out what Jess is doing and how much she's improved and in what must be some kind of miracle, Ellie actually understands what he's talking about, can see the change in Jess for herself. Pride rises up like a lump in her throat and she can't keep the smile off her face. 

Talking to him face to face is much nicer than a text message conversation and she thinks that he might even think the same. 

That evening, her phone doesn't vibrate with a message. It rings instead and Nick's voice on the other end makes her smile when he doesn't even start the call with hello. Instead, the first words he says to her are, "So, I think talking to you today was actually easier than texting... I thought we might try something new." Then a pause, and when he spoke again, he actually sounded unsure. "Unless you're in the middle of something, of course." 

Ellie squints at the computer in front of her. "A briefing memo on possible terrorist chatter in northern Pakistan. And a pile of ironing that's building up." 

There's a chuckle from the other end. "Oh, my apologies. I'll let you get back to it." Except the tone of his voice indicates the exact opposite and she laughs out loud. 

"Believe me, I think I'll survive," she tells him and then he's off, teasing her about how he couldn't possibly live with himself if he distracted her from her work. 

They spend the best part of an hour on the phone, talking about nothing at all and Ellie can't remember a time when she felt more relaxed. 

The same thing happens the next night, and the next. The one after that, she calls him and then they're trading nights until Ellie can't remember what she used to do with the hour that she now spends talking to him. 

After a couple of weeks of that, she finds herself looking forward to those nightly calls, until the day that she forgets about them completely. That's the day that she picks Jess up from daycare and her usually calm and placid daughter is in the worst mood that Ellie has ever seen. She barely says two words to her, snaps when Ellie asks her if anything is wrong and flat out refuses to be drawn on anything. She stomps to her bedroom immediately after dinner and Ellie just stares after her at a complete loss.

Which is when her cell phone rings. 

She picks it up without thinking, barely registers that it's Nick calling. He's earlier than usual. "Hey," he says. "I'm not calling at a bad time, am I?"

Ellie shrugs her shoulders even though she knows he can't see her. "Well, I think my daughter's entered the teenage years early, so there might be a few bad times in my future," she says and he clears his throat on the other end of the line. 

"Yeah, about that... I might have an answer for you."

"You know something?" Ellie drops down at her kitchen table, all thoughts of cleaning up forgotten. 

"Mila came home from school today a little upset." Ellie closes her eyes, sure that her daughter and her best friend have had some sort of falling out that's the end of their seven year old world. It turns out to be so much worse than that. "Apparently, they were told today that there's a school dance coming up." Which is the most ridiculous thing Ellie has ever heard because they're seven. Aren't dances for older kids? There's a pause before Nick continues. "A daddy daughter dance."

Oh. 

Well then. 

Ellie pinches the bridge of her nose and takes a deep breath, cursing Jake not for the first time. "I see," is all she says, wondering seriously if it's too late to book a flight from London to DC. Not that she thinks Jake would take it, even if she could. "That explains a lot." 

"Mila said Jess was pretty sad at lunch." The words are like a knife to Ellie's heart and she feels tears coming to her eyes. "And she... ah... she came up with a solution."

He sounds hesitant suddenly. She's never heard him sound like that before. "What solution?" Because short of getting Jake across the Atlantic or shipping one of her brothers in from Oklahoma, Ellie can't see one and she solves problems for a living. 

"Look, this is only a suggestion and she didn't mention it to Jess, so if you're not ok with it, there's no problem. I told her you mightn't be. But how would you feel..." He takes a breath and says the next words all in a rush. "How would it be if she came with me and Mila?"

Ellie's so stunned, so shocked, she literally can't speak for a moment. "With you?"

"It was Mila's suggestion," he tells her. "She thinks the world of Jess... you know they've started calling themselves sisters, right?" As a matter of fact, she had heard them doing that on the soccer pitch a few days previous. "She doesn't want her to miss out on the dance... which is ridiculous, by the way, almost eight years old and they're talking about this now?" She can picture his look of impatience, the way he's shaking his head in disgust. "Anyway, I wanted to make the offer. I don't want Jess to miss out either." 

Ellie takes a deep breath, wipes a tear from her cheek and wonders when she started crying. "I'll talk to Jess," she says. "Thank you."

"Of course..." She'd been about to hang up until Nick adds about seventeen extra syllables to those two. "If we do end up doing this, do you think you could do me a favour in return?" 

He sounds like he thinks she might say no. "What favour?"

"It's her first dance, Ellie. She's going to need a dress." Straight away, she can see where he's going with this and from crying she now finds herself fighting against laughter. "And shoes and a purse and accessories and absolutely no make-up, I mean over my dead body, she's seven years of age..." He stops and she can hear his sharp intake of breath. "I'm a guy, Ellie. I don't know about any of that stuff." 

"Nick." She says his name very patiently, very slowly. "I would be happy to take Mila out dress shopping with Jess and me." 

"Are you sure? Because I could ask my sister or my niece... I just thought the two girls would enjoy it, you know, being sisters and all..." She can hear the smile on his face and it matches the one on her own. 

"I'm going to go and talk to Jess now, ok? I'll call you later, when they're in bed." 

"I'll be waiting."

There is no reason, she tells herself, for the shiver that runs down her spine when he says those words. Even if he sounded like he meant it, even if his voice seemed lower, huskier even, than before. 

No reason at all. 

Jess bursts into tears at the thought of getting to go to the dance with Mila and Nick, but she assures Ellie that they're happy tears. 

And if Ellie sheds a few of her own not so happy tears before calling Nick, she doesn't tell him. 

What she also doesn’t tell Nick is that dress shopping for an occasion like this happens to be her own personal version of hell and she’s not looking forward to it in the least. She’d always been something of a tomboy growing up, even shopping for her own prom dress had been something to get through rather than something to be enjoyed. And considering how her prom had ended up, she wonders sometimes if there’s some secretly psychic part of her that knew all along it was going to be a disaster. 

But she’s a woman of her word and one Saturday morning after soccer practice she takes Jess home to get her changed and then drives over to Nick’s house to collect Mila. He grins as he opens the door, laughs out loud as he’s almost knocked over by Mila pushing past him to get out to the car and Jess. “Not even a hug?” he asks but Mila ignores him completely, doesnt look back. The two girls hug one another and squeal, instantly reaching a pitch that only dogs can hear and Ellie’s suddenly wishing she’d brought earplugs. 

A glance at Nick reveals no sympathy. “You sure you want to do this?” Despite his words, he’s smirking. He knows there’s no way she’s backing out. 

“Wish me luck,” she says, taking a step towards the car. 

“Hold on.” She turns to see him producing an envelope from the back pocket of his jeans. “This should cover everything for Mila... let me know if it’s not enough.” 

Ellie takes the envelope from his outstretched hand and as she does so, their fingers brush for just an instant. It’s enough to make a crackle of electricity run up and down her spine and when she looks up at him, his eyes are wide and she knows he felt it too. 

“Mom, hurry up!” 

Jess’s voice - and when did her little mouse get so loud, she wonders - breaks the spell and Ellie steps backwards as she feels a small smile come to her lips. “Better listen to the boss,” she says and Nick just nods and watches her go. 

She can see in her rear view mirror that he watches them until they’re out of sight. 

It turns out that the whole dress shopping experience is a lot more fun than Ellie anticipated. The two girls have a ball trying on various outfits and Ellie snaps pictures of them, sends them to Nick for approval. His responses - mostly along the line of how grown up Mila looks and how she’s breaking his heart - make her grin. One particular one about over his dead body will his daughter wear a dress like that makes her laugh out loud. She tells him that Mila hadn’t actually intended to buy that dress, just thought that the lime green, sequinned dress with six layers of tulle in the underskirt was “the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen” and she wanted to know if it looked better when someone was wearing it. The girls both agreed it didn’t. 

He actually calls her in the middle of the changing room after that message. “She actually said that?” He doesn’t even bother with hello, just continues their text conversation without skipping a beat. 

Ellie nods although she knows he can’t see her. “She felt very strongly about it.” 

“God...” His voice is wistful suddenly. “That’s something her mom would have done.” Ellie doesn’t quite know what to say to that, is suddenly reminded that, for all the sparks that she sometimes feels flying between them, the easy friendship that’s sprung up, he still wears his wedding ring. 

When he speaks again, his voice is lighter. “So, how are you holding up? Is it a hostage situation? Should I call SWAT?” 

“Surprisingly well,” Ellie laughs. “They’re having lots of fun.” 

“I can tell.” Nick’s tone is dry. “Promise me, Ellie, nothing too out there. I’m trusting you.” 

Ellie grimaces. “I’ll do my best, Nick, but I can’t promise anything.” Her voice belies the words though and when he groans, she laughs out loud. “Ok, they’re coming out. I’ll talk to you later.” 

Later turns out to be later than she thought but she does bring the girls for ice cream so she thinks that’s allowed. And if she gets an extra scoop for herself, with sprinkles, well, she’s earned it. She’s texted Nick to say they’re on their way home so he has the door open before she’s turned off the ignition of her car. Mila is out of the car like a bullet from a gun, Jess right behind her and the two of them are in the house and up the stairs before Ellie’s feet are on the ground. 

“Where do they get their energy from?” she asks Nick in amazement and he just shrugs. 

“Hell if I know.” He tilts his head and grins at her. “But it does make it easier for me to ask if you want to stay for dinner.” At the mere suggestion, Ellie’s stomach gives an embarrassingly loud gurgle and Nick laughs at her reddening cheeks. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He slings an arm around her shoulders and steers her towards the house and she does her best not to lean into him. 

He drops his arm when they get to the front steps and she misses the warm weight of it immediately. “Sit down,” he says as he walks them into the kitchen. “It’s almost ready. Arroz con pollo ok?”

"I swear," she says as she drops down on one of the kitchen stools, "you could give me bread and water and it would sound good to me right now." She flops down on the island, lets her head fall into her folded arms and she dimly hears him chuckle. 

"You're actually making me feel guilty," he says and she starts slightly when she feels his hand, warm and strong, land on top of her head, move across her hair. Only for a moment though, then she closes her eyes and relaxes into the all too brief touch. 

"Don't speak too soon," she says, tilting her head and opening one eye to peer up at him. The fond smile that she sees on his face makes her stomach swirl pleasantly. "You're the one who'll have to deal with them when they're all dressed up." 

He screws his face up exaggeratedly, slaps his hand over his chest as if she's mortally wounded him. “I can revoke your dinner privileges,” he threatens and she straightens up, looks him dead in the eye. 

“And have Mila and Jess to deal with?” 

“Hey, I’ll still feed Jess; you can fend for yourself." 

Ellie heaves a theatrical sigh, pushes herself to her feet. He blinks, looks momentarily unsure of himself but when she smiles, he visibly relaxes. "I'd say that would never happen but I think Jess would throw me out herself just to get to stay here with Mila a little longer." A look crosses Nick's face that she thinks is supposed to be apologetic, it misses by at least a mile and lands somewhere far closer to amused. She's pretty sure her own expression mirrors his. "So, what can I do to help out?" 

"Oh no, no, no." He waggles his index finger at her. "You took my kid out to buy her a dress, the least I can do is feed you." 

She'd expected that response, has a rebuttal all ready. "And you're bringing Jess to the dance, so we're even." Her gaze swung to the dining room table, currently bare. “I can at least set the table.” 

He holds her gaze for a second longer and she sees the exact moment he decides to give in. "Fine," he mutters but there's a curl to his lips that belie his words. He crosses to a drawer and pulls it open, waves his hand as he continues, more to himself than to her, "Why is it my fate to be surrounded by stubborn females?" 

"Just lucky, I guess," she responds as she crosses behind him to pull out the knives and forks and she hears him chuckle under his breath. 

"True." It's said so quietly that she almost thinks she imagined it and when she looks over at him, his back is to her so that she can't see his face. 

She smiles to herself as she sets the table, follows his pointed finger to find where the glasses live, puts them out too. All the time, there's an easy banter between them and when dinner is served and the two girls join them, the chatter and laughter doesn't stop as Mila and Jess fill him in on their day and even the rule on cell phones at the table gets broken so that they can scroll through Ellie's camera roll and show off their favourite and funniest pictures. In fact, Ellie doesn't stop smiling for the whole evening, is reminded of dinners around her own family table when she was growing up, her three brothers holding court around the table, Mom and Dad asking questions, occasionally getting answers, and Ellie quiet in the middle of it all but perfectly content. This is what it's like, she thinks, to be part of a family, to have someone to share the parenting duties with, someone to look at and laugh with when your kid does or say something that you can't quite believe. To know that, when they go upstairs, you'll still have someone to talk to, someone who understands what it's like to shake your head with fondness yet roll your eyes with exasperation all within the same five minutes. Someone who's there with you, every step of the way. 

And she knows, because she's Ellie Bishop and she's logical and sensible and not given to flights of fancy, that that is not what this is. This is a temporary bubble she's living in and in a little while it will burst and she'll go back to her apartment with Jess and it will be just the two of them again. 

But for the moment, she lets herself dream. 

*

By the time the actual day of the dance dawns, Ellie is more than ready for it to be over. Which might just make her a bad mom, but considering that it seems to have morphed into something that’s a combination of Christmas and her birthday in Jess’s mind, she’s willing to take her chances. Her daughter’s excitement is both off the charts and exhausting and only the fact that their nightly phone calls let her know that Nick is feeling the same way stops her from feeling one hundred per cent guilty about it. 

She’s topping out at about ninety, but she can live with that. 

The day of the dance, she makes sure to leave work early, actually takes a half day so that she knows she won’t be rushing around. She makes sure Jess eats her dinner - excitement means that her daughter’s appetite has vanished, or maybe just her ability to sit still - and then they go upstairs to get ready. Jess’s dress is turquoise, a rich shade that sets off her long blonde hair and after a few false starts, Ellie manages to tame her locks into a fishtail plait. She doesn’t mention to Jess how many times she watched the video tutorial on YouTube the previous night so that she’d actually be able to get it right and she’s quite proud of her efforts. 

She takes a couple of pictures of Jess in the living room so that she can send them to her mom and brothers in Oklahoma while they wait for Nick and Mila to arrive. Her mom texts back that Jess looks beautiful and her brothers all send messages about how she looks too grown up and how they don’t approve. It’s very much the same type of thing they used to say about Ellie when she was growing up and it makes her smile. 

Well, right up until her phone actually rings and George’s face flashes up on the display. Knowing it’s more than her life’s worth to put it through to voicemail, Ellie hands it to Jess to answer - chalk it up to another reason to call her a bad mom but she’s not above using her kid to head her brothers off at the pass. 

Unfortunately, Jess is too excited to talk beyond “Did you see my picture?” and she hands the phone to Ellie almost right after. “Uncle George wants to talk to you.” 

Biting back her sigh, Ellie takes the phone and George wastes no time cutting to the chase. "So tell me again about this guy who's taking Jess to the dance?" 

Holding a finger up to Jess, who is bouncing on the couch with excitement, Ellie heads into her bedroom, leaves the door ajar so she'll hear anyone arriving. "It's just Nick, Mila's dad," she says. She knows Jess has told George all about her best friend, knows he was impressed that Mila actually got her out away from her books and playing a sport. 

"And you're ok with him taking her?" 

Ellie actually laughs. "It's an elementary school dance, it's for a couple of hours, tops. And they're so excited about it... It's really sweet. And exhausting. But mostly sweet." 

There's a pause on the other end of the line. "You know you didn't have to farm her out to strangers, right? She's my god-daughter, Ell, I'd have booked a plane ticket the second you told me." 

"I know that." George takes his godfather duties very seriously, coming to visit every birthday, taking her to see Santa every Christmas, calling Jess once a week to see what's going on in her life. But he also has his life in Oklahoma and the farm won't run itself and Nick had made the offer so quickly that she hadn't needed to ask George. 

"We just worry about you, Ell. Both of you." George's voice is gentle, sincere, and Ellie has to press her lips together so she won't start to cry. Then George changes tack completely. "So this Nick guy... Do I need to interrogate him?" 

Ellie is suddenly very glad they're not on Facetime because her cheeks flame red. "I'm not having this conversation-" she starts and she's mercifully interrupted when the doorbell chimes. "They're here!" Jess shrieks and Ellie hears her footsteps running for the door. "I need to go, George, Nick and Mila are here," she says, hearing Jess open the front door, high pitched giggling instantly following. 

"We're not done here." 

"I know, I'll send you pictures, bye." She rushes the words out, ending the call and taking an extra second to make sure that it's terminated. Another quick glance in the mirror tells her that she doesn't look like her big brother's just emotionally flustered her so she takes a deep breath and plasters a smile on her face as she steps out of her bedroom. 

The sight she sees stops her in her tracks. 

Mila looks every inch the princess, the sequins on her dusty pink dress catching the light as she moves. Her dark hair has been twisted up into a princess bun, little diamond studs pinned through it and also twinkling in the light, bright as the smiles on her and Jess's faces. 

But it's Nick who holds her attention. 

She thought he might wear a suit and tie and she was half right. The dark suit fits him perfectly, emphasising his strong frame, but he's not wearing a tie, so his black shirt is open at the neck. It's not a combination that some men could pull off - on Jake, it would look ridiculous - but it works on him. "Woof," Ellie thinks but she doesn't say it out loud. 

“Mom!” Jess’s voice, bubbling with excitement, breaks through her reverie. “Look what Nick got me!” Nick steps away from her and she lifts up her arm to display the tiniest wrist corsage Ellie has ever seen. There’s a white rose in the middle, surrounded by wisps of baby’s breath and as Ellie covers her lips with her hand - it’s seriously sweet and she can’t quite believe that Nick did that - Mila lifts up her arm to display an identical corsage. “We’re like twins!” Jess exclaims and Nick shrugs, almost looking sheepish, except for the fact that he’s grinning broadly. 

“Hey, a gentleman always brings flowers for his date, am I right?” The two little girls giggle and they giggle even more when he turns and leans over to pick something up from the floor behind him. 

Ellie does not check out the view that affords her. 

Much. 

Her jaw drops with a little exclamation of shock when Nick turns around, holding a bouquet of flowers towards her. “A gentleman also always brings flowers for his date’s mom,” he says. “I wasn’t sure what you liked so...”

There’s a mixture of all sorts of flowers and all sorts of colours, bright and vibrant, just the sort of thing to bring a smile to anyone’s face. “They’re beautiful,” she says, accepting them from him and dropping her head to smell them. She can’t remember the last time someone brought her flowers. “You shouldn’t have...”

“I couldn’t leave you out.” Is it her imagination or is his voice a little lower suddenly? The ripple of goosebumps on her arms definitely isn’t her imagination and she’s thankful that her long sleeved jumper hides them from his gaze. 

“Thank you,” she says, giving them one last sniff before placing them on the kitchen counter. When she turns back to the girls, their heads are close together as they whisper quietly. It’s the quietest Jess has been all day but she’s still grinning broadly. So is Mila, and Ellie’s instantly suspicious. 

“All right,” Nick says, clapping his hands together and drawing the girls’ attention. “Are you ladies ready to get this show on the road?” 

“Daddy.” Mila draws out the word. “You need to take pictures of us.” 

Nick’s eyes widen at the unmistakable order and Ellie bites the inside of her cheek. “I’ve got it,” she says, holding up her phone. Instantly Mila and Jess strike a pose and Ellie once more has to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing at the strangled groan that Nick lets out. She obediently takes the photograph, then a few more silly ones before Nick insists on having a photo that he'll actually be able to show Aunt Lucia. Ellie takes one of him with Mila and promises to send it to him, then one of him with the two girls, at his insistence. He also insists of taking one of her and Jess together, despite her protests that she's not really dressed for photographs - he just gives her a look and tells her to stand beside her daughter. Then there's one of her and the two girls and by the time all that is done, it's actually past time for them to be gone. 

"Good luck," she says teasingly as she stands in the doorway and Nick glances back over his shoulder at her, gives her an exaggerated look of terror. 

"Enjoy the peace and quiet," he tells her and she laughs quietly as she closes the door. 

If it's a little too quiet in her apartment, if she crosses quickly to the window just so she can see his car pulling away, well no-one needs to know. 

It's been a long time since she's had the place to herself and it feels a little weird, to be honest. She's bought a couple of new books in preparation though, as well as a large bar of chocolate. A steaming cup of tea in her favourite mug and she curls up on the couch and gets thoroughly lost. 

She doesn't realise how much time has passed until her cell phone rings. Nick's name appears on the display and a quick glance at her watch tells her that he must be calling to say that they're on their way home. When she picks up, she guesses her instinct must be right because he's obviously in the car and she can hear two very giddy, very giggly voices in the background. 

"So," he begins, drawing out the word. "The dance finished a few minutes ago... and don't get mad, but I may have promised my dates that I would take them out for ice cream." 

It wouldn't have been her first choice of activity - Jess has been excited all week and Ellie knows the sugar crash is going to be hell - but it is Friday and there's no soccer practice tomorrow, for once, so Ellie can't really say anything. "That sounds like a great idea." 

"Well, that's why I told you not to get mad." The giggles in the background intensify. "We'll be at your place in about five minutes, the girls want you to come too." 

Her jaw drops and she looks down at her cosy old jumper, her black leggings and bare feet. "Nick-" 

It's all she's able to get out before there's a cacophony of "Please Mommy," and "Please Ellie," so loud that she has to pull the phone away from her ear. She can only imagine what it sounds like in the confines of the car and she's not surprised when Nick shushes them. 

"My treat," he says and she sighs, giving in to the inevitable. 

"Three against one isn't fair, you guys."

There's cheering in the background and a soft chuckle that makes her stomach dip. "See you soon." 

With only five minutes notice, there's not much she can do to make herself presentable. Drag a brush through her hair and pull on a pair of boots is pretty much it before her cell phone chimes again with Nick's number. "We're right outside," he says and she tells him she'll be right out as she grabs her coat and purse and locks up. 

The girls actually cheer when she gets into the car and Nick shoots her a grin as she buckles herself in and he starts to drive. "You needed reinforcements that badly, huh?" she quips and he shakes his head. 

"Ellie, you have no idea." His shudder might just be for show, then again, it might be genuine. "God help me when she's a teenager. I don't know how I'll cope." 

"Take it from me, ice cream will always work." 

"Yeah?" He glances over at her then, his eyes flickering over her face and body before returning to the road. "Good to know." 

Jess and Mila take over the conversation then, telling her all about the dance and the songs and who else was there. They barely pause for breath once they get to the diner and slide side by side into a booth, leaving Nick and Ellie to sit side by side as well. “Ok,” Nick says quietly as he reaches past her to get a menu. “I’m willing to stipulate that ice cream may not have been the best idea.” It’s such an understatement that it surprises a full bodied laugh out of Ellie. “Oh sure, laugh at my predicament.” 

“In case you haven’t noticed,” she reminds him, still laughing, “your predicament is also my predicament.” 

“I promise to make it up to you.” 

He actually sounds sincere and Ellie shakes her head. “I’m just glad they had a good time,” she says. “Now, do you girls have pictures to show me?” 

Mila straight away makes grabby hands for Nick’s phone and they waste no time in scrolling through the photographs, giving her a running commentary as they do. Somewhere in between, a waitress comes to take their order and it’s sundaes all around, then the two girls decide to take more silly table selfies, Jess taking Ellie's phone for the same purpose, leaving Nick and Ellie to talk among themselves. 

“Nice job with the hair,” she says, nodding at Mila’s bun, still perfect. “You obviously have hidden talents.” 

“No. I have a niece who took pity on me,” he tells her with a rueful twist of his lips. “Amanda’s fourteen and insisted on coming over this evening. There was make up involved; I had to scrub Mila’s face before I could let her out.” 

Across the table, Mila pouts. “It was just lipstick.” 

“And you’re just seven. Now, back to your Snapchat filters, young lady.” But his lips are twitching as he says it and Mila is grinning as she turns back to Jess and they laugh at something on the phone screen. “I’m pretty sure the two of them just did it to see my face turn purple.” 

“Which worked.” 

It wasn’t a question and he doesn’t take it as such. “Which worked.” He runs a hand over his face. “It never used to be this easy to push my buttons.” 

Ellie presses her lips together and looks down. “I’m sure you were far from the only dad feeling that way.” 

“True.” He tilts his head, looks her up and down. “So, what did you do with your time to yourself?” 

“Enjoyed the silence and read a book.” She stops for a second as she considers how that sounds. It’s one of her favourite things to do but she’s well aware that it mightn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. “I probably should have said something really self indulgent and decadent, shouldn’t I?” 

“Hey, when you took them out dress shopping, I cleaned the house from top to bottom. Relaxing with a book sounds plenty self indulgent to me. I’m actually jealous.” 

Ellie narrows her eyes. “Don’t tell me, you’re going to get me to take Mila for a play date so you can do the same thing?” 

If her eyes are narrow, his are wide, full of mischief. “That’s a great idea, thank you for offering!” She laughs and so does he but when she speaks again, she’s completely serious. 

“Mila’s welcome at our place anytime.” She makes sure not to say that too loud though. Jess has keenly acute hearing when she wants to and if she hears anything like that, Ellie won’t get a second’s peace until she has Mila over for either a play date or sleepover. The event she wouldn’t mind; the nagging in the lead up to it, she can definitely too without. 

“Smile, Mom!” She turns her heads towards Jess when she hears her voice, and Jess snaps a picture of the two of them. “Let me check,” she says, tapping the screen and showing it to Mila who claps her hands with delight. 

“May I?” Nick asks, holding out his hand. Jess hands it over and he tilts the screen so that Ellie can see it too. She doesn’t get her picture taken much, is usually the one behind the camera and she has to admit that this isn’t a bad one. She’s smiling at the camera, her eyes dancing with laughter as her hair spills over her shoulders. She expects Nick to be looking at the camera too, but he’s not. Instead, he’s looking at her, a smile on his face that’s the match of hers but there’s something else there too, something that makes her breath catch, makes her heart skip a little in her chest. 

It’s been a long time since anyone looked at her like that. 

She drags her eyes up from the picture to meet his gaze, expecting him to be embarrassed, to change the subject completely. 

But instead his eyes meet hers and he doesn’t blink. “That’s a great picture,” he says, his voice quiet, his expression intense and just like earlier in her apartment, goosebumps ripple along her skin. 

“Yeah,” she says. “It is.” 

*

The weekend after the dance passes in a whirl of house cleaning and batch cooking for the week ahead. There's a phone call from Nick on the Saturday night once the girls are in bed, but on the Sunday afternoon as she and Jess are curled up on the couch watching "Frozen" for the millionth time, her phone chimes with a text message from Nick. "I won't be able to call you tonight," it reads. "Big case. Hopefully tomorrow?" 

She reads the words once, then twice to make sure she's read them correctly, tries not to notice how her stomach goes into a low swoop that feels suspiciously like disappointment. She's a big girl, after all, she got through plenty of nights without listening to Nick Torres's voice, she can get through another one. 

She sends back a frowning emoji, types beside it, "On a Sunday? That sucks. Let me know if you need any help with Mila." 

There's about a forty minute gap before he texts back. She tells herself the only reason she knew how long it was is because she's good with numbers. "My sister has her. But thanks." 

"Good luck with the case," Ellie texts back, just to have some kind of closure, and she doesn't hear back from him for the rest of the night. Which is what she was expecting, given the message that he'd left her in the first place. She tells herself that there's no reason for her to make a big deal out of it, he has to work and that's all there is to it. But when Jess is in bed and she's curled up on her couch, trying to read, she has to admit to herself that she misses hearing his voice. Misses hearing about his day, telling him about hers. Misses the way that they talk about nothing and everything and she always hangs up the phone with a smile on her face. 

It's a long night, she finds, without that phone call. 

She's not sure if it's missing the phone call or the realisation of how much she's come to look forward to it - look forward to him, who is she kidding? - that makes her feel as if her world is a little knocked off kilter, makes her sleep badly that night. She does know that she needs something to snap her out of it, break her out of her funk so she's glad that she's actually getting out of the office to meet a friend for lunch. 

Delilah is already seated at the table by the time Ellie gets there. "I'm so sorry I'm late," Ellie says, reaching down to hug her friend but Delilah just waves her hand dismissively. 

"Don't be silly, I've only just got here myself." She pours Ellie a glass of water but doesn't bother handing her a menu. "I assume we're having our usual?" 

That sounds fine to Ellie, so she nods. "Great." Delilah crosses her arms, plants them firmly on the table and leans in, eyes gleaming. "Now, tell me everything." 

Ellie blinks and laughs awkwardly, a little taken aback. She knows exactly what Delilah is referring to, just hadn't expected her friend to be quite so blunt. "Everything?" she parries. "What do you mean?" 

Delilah makes a show of rolling her eyes. "Ellie, I work with the DOD. I break secrets for a living." She pauses, gives Ellie enough time to recognise the truth of that statement. "So I really, really, want to know what's going on with you and your Hot Soccer Dad." 

Ellie screws up her eyes and covers her face with one hand, regretting, not for the first time, mentioning Nick around Delilah. Not by name - she didn't trust her friend not to run some sort of DOD background check on him - but since they met on a joint NSA/DOD task force three years ago and hit it off, Delilah has made it her mission to introduce Ellie to any single man that she thinks would be suitable for her. Very few have made it past the first date, but Delilah is a stubborn woman and won't take no for an answer. So when she'd tried to call Ellie one night at the same time as Ellie had been on the phone to Nick, Ellie really should have known better than to mention that she'd been on the phone with a man. "Delilah..." 

"At least tell me about the dance. Was Jess gorgeous? Did she have fun? Do you have pictures?" 

Ellie's already reaching for her phone, scrolling back through the camera roll to the start of the evening. She finds one of Jess smiling at the camera, holding out the full skirt of her dress to show it off. It was the one she'd sent to her mom and brothers, the one she’s determined to put in a frame if she ever remembers to print the damn thing out. "Of course," she grins as she holds the phone out to Delilah, who makes the appropriate noise of friendly delight, reaching out and taking the phone from Ellie's hand. 

"May I?" Ellie gives the phone up, knowing full well what she's letting herself in for, and Delilah angles it so that she can see it better. "Oh, she is gorgeous... she's so grown up." She pinches the screen to zoom in. "Good job on the hair. How many YouTube videos?" 

Ellie laughs. "Too many." Delilah holds her finger over the screen, raises one eyebrow and Ellie gives into the inevitable. "Go on... scroll." 

The grin that turns up Delilah's face is positively wicked as she goes to work, flicking through the pictures, holding the phone so that Ellie can see what picture she's looking at. She's surprised when Delilah pauses at the first one of Jess and Mila side by side, doing the pose that had made Nick look as if he wanted to gouge out his eyes with a tea spoon. A tiny frown appears between her eyebrows but she swipes on to the next one, a more traditional smiling pose of the two girls. Her frown deepens. "Wait a second..."

"What?" 

Then Delilah swipes a couple more times, until she comes to one of Jess and Mila with Nick standing in between them. His arms are around the two girls and it's hard to say which of the three has the biggest grin on their face. 

Delilah isn't grinning though.

Instead her jaw drops. 

"Oh my God." 

When she looks back up at Ellie, her eyes are as wide and round as saucers and she seems to be at a loss for words. That's new for Ellie because Delilah Fielding is seldom, if ever, at a loss for words. Of course, once she speaks, Ellie's at a loss for words too. "That's Nick Torres. Your Hot Soccer Dad is Nick Torres?"

"Wait." It takes a couple of tries for Ellie to get her mouth going. "You know him?" 

Delilah nods, an expression of delight slowly creeping across her face. "He works with Tim, they're on the major case team together." 

"You're kidding me." Ellie had known that Nick works for NCIS, had known that Delilah's husband, Tim, works there too. It’s just such a huge organisation that it had never remotely crossed her mind that the two of them would even know one another, let alone work on the same team. 

"I'm really not. This is incredible." Delilah is still scrolling through the pictures, having moved now onto the ones in the diner after the dance. "Jess loves her filters, doesn't-" She stops mid-sentence, having found the picture that Jess had snapped of Ellie and Nick, Ellie smiling at the camera, him smiling at her. Turning the phone towards Ellie, she leans forward, her eyes narrowed to laser point precision. "Explain this now please?" 

Try as she might, Ellie can't take her eyes off Nick's face in that photograph. "He promised the girls he'd take them out for ice cream after the dance and the three of them strong armed me into coming along. Hence me looking like Cinderella before the Fairy Godmother came along." 

Delilah gives her a look. "Nick does not look like he cares about that." 

"We were in the middle of a conversation; Jess called me, I looked over, she took the picture. That's all." She's trying to tell herself that, trying to make herself believe it. Well, that's not actually true. She believes that probably was what happened. She just would really like it to be a little bit more than that. 

"Ellie..." Delilah lays the phone down screen side up. "Let's look at the evidence here. You guys talk on the phone every night. He takes Jess to a daddy daughter dance. He takes you both for ice cream afterwards. He's invited you to dinner at his house. And he looks at you like that." She jabs at the screen with her index finger. "That is not a guy who just wants to be your friend." Ellie opens her mouth to say something but Delilah doesn't let her. "And besides, if it was just some random guy, I'd be urging you to be a bit more careful, sure. But this is Nick. Nick Torres is a great guy." 

Ellie already knows that but she knows better than to say it, sips her water and gives her order to the waiter who picks that exact moment to come over to the table. Once he's gone, she takes a deep breath and proceeds to ask a question that she knows is going to give Delilah all the ammunition she needs to not drop the subject. Ever. For the rest of their lives. "How long have you known him?" 

Delilah tilts her head as she works it out. "Four years, give or take? He was already on the team when I started dating Tim. We've met a few times; I actually saw him with Mila at the NCIS softball game last summer. Tim says he talks about her all the time." Her eyes flicker to the phone lying between them. "He's a good agent. Direct, doesn't take any crap. Loyal to his friends." None of this is surprising to Ellie at all. Delilah's next words do though. "And that body...” She actually licks her lips. “Tony decided to bring Super Soakers to the softball game last year, and he and Nick, two typical Alpha Males, ended up in the water fight to end all water fights. They were both soaked. And let me tell you, Nick Torres in a tight wet t-shirt? A gift from God." 

Ellie's mouth opens and closes a couple of times without any words coming out. It might be because she's shocked at her friend's words. It might be because she's imagining Nick in a tight wet t-shirt. What she eventually comes out with is, "I thought you were an atheist?" 

"Trust me." Delilah doesn't blink, doesn't miss a beat. "A man like Nick Torres could at least turn me agnostic." She stops then, as if a thought has occurred to her. "Please don't mention this to Tim." 

Laughing softly, Ellie shakes her head. "Your secret is safe with me," she promises. 

They share a smile. "So, when are you seeing him again?" Delilah asks before grimacing. "I assume you will if this case ever gets wrapped up. Tim got called in at six o'clock yesterday morning, he barely made it home by midnight." 

"Probably soccer next Saturday?" Ellie guesses. "If they're that busy, I doubt he'll call me." 

"You can call him?" Delilah suggests and Ellie doesn't admit that she could and often does. "It's the twenty-first century," Delilah continues. "You could even ask him out." 

"It's not that easy." The words are out before Ellie can stop them and when Delilah narrows her eyes in question, she finds herself continuing. "Mila and Jess are really good friends, they call themselves sisters... what if things went wrong between Nick and me? How awkward would that be? We work well as friends... two people who understand what it's like to be a single parent, someone I can talk to about anything... Delilah, I don't want to screw that up."

Delilah is silent for a moment, considering. "Have you ever thought," she says eventually, "that if something did happen between the two of you, not much would actually change? You'd still be parenting your girls, venting to each other, going to soccer practice together... everything exactly the same as it is now. Just with really awesome sex thrown in." 

The final line makes Ellie laugh out of sheer shock. "Delilah!"

Delilah is laughing too and Ellie knows that that was exactly why she'd said that, to break the tension, snap Ellie out of herself. "Oh come on, Ellie." Delilah holds up Ellie's phone, zooms in on the picture of Nick and Ellie so that Nick's profile fills the screen. "Look at the man. Just look." 

Instead, Ellie covers her face with her hands. "I'm never going to be able to look at him with a straight face again." 

Delilah's laughter fades and she's very serious when she leans over and places her hand on Ellie's arm. "Listen, Ellie, all joking aside. Nick is really great. You're really great. And for what it's worth, I think you'd be great together. Just..." She stops, looks down at her chair. She bites her lip and sighs. "None of us know what tomorrow holds. And I just think life's too short not to go for what makes you happy." 

Ellie swallows hard because she knows Delilah's right. 

*

She hopes that, because of the case that Tim and Nick have been working on apparently being a heavy one, that Delilah won't have the chance to fill Tim in on recent developments. That hope lasts until late that night, when Jess is sound asleep in bed and Ellie is on the couch in her pyjamas, not long from going to bed herself. She's surprised when her cell phone rings, surprised to see Nick's number come up on the display, and not at all surprised by his opening words. 

"So, I believe we have friends in common?" 

Not even a hello, but he sounds amused and Ellie grins as she settles herself more comfortably back against the couch cushions. "I take it Delilah talked to Tim?" 

"You could say that." He gives a dry little chuckle. "After she scared him out of about ten years of life." She makes a noise to indicate confusion so he continues, "We were in interrogation with a suspect so McGee didn't have his phone with him. When he checked it later on, he had four missed calls from her - I think he thought something was badly wrong." 

Ellie pinches the bridge of her nose, knowing that, with Delilah's condition, that could very easily be a possibility. "Oh no."

"He hightailed it to a quiet place to call her back and of course, we were all worried so we all waited for him in the squad room. You gotta picture it, Ellie, us all worried and he just strolls in with a grin on his face and asks me if your name means anything to me." 

A voice that sounds very like Delilah's sounds in Ellie's head, demanding that she ask him if her name does indeed mean anything to him. Reason and common sense win out and instead she says, "I should have made the connection sooner. I knew you worked for NCIS, I knew Tim did... but what are the chances-"

"That out of the hundreds of NCIS employees in DC, we would be team-mates?" That's definitely amusement she hears in Nick's voice. "You're with the NSA, you must be good at math, you tell me." 

She meets his teasing with a, "I'll get right on that." 

"So how did you and Delilah meet?" 

"On a case. It was a joint NSA and DOD task force, we were the only two women in the room."

"So the men put you together at every opportunity?" 

It was a good guess, just not the right one. "Actually no, we gravitated towards each other all on our own. It was just so nice to have someone who understood what mansplaining was and recognised it when it happened... I think we rolled our eyes across the room at one another a dozen times before lunch on the first day before we'd even spoken to each other properly." 

"Things like that will bond people." She can picture him nodding sagely, even if there's a note in his voice that lets her know he doesn't quite understand what she's talking about. 

"We kept in touch and we've been friends ever since," Ellie shrugs. "How's your case going?"

He actually groans. "I didn't think it was possible, but it feels like we're going backwards," he says. "It was midnight when I got home last night; Lucia kept Mila overnight, got her off to school this morning. I barely made it home for bedtime tonight, and only then because Gibbs sent us all home to get some rest and come at it fresh in the morning." He sighs and she can almost hear the exhaustion in his voice. "I feel like I could sleep for a week." 

Ellie sits up straight. "I shouldn't keep you-" she begins and he cuts across her, doesn't let her finish her thought. 

"That wasn't a hint," he says quickly, like he's afraid she's about to get hold of the wrong end of the stick entirely. "I like talking to you... I missed it last night." 

The blush starts somewhere around Ellie's chest, creeps up her neck and along her cheeks. "Me too," she tells him and she's glad that Delilah's not here to see this. She'd never let Ellie hear the end of it. 

"So..." he says, after a long moment of silence, "tell me about your day. I already know about your lunch... what else happened?" 

Taking a deep breath, Ellie starts to talk. 

The conversation continues until they're both almost falling asleep and when Ellie wakes up the next morning, she can't deny to herself that she feels much better than she had the previous day. Maybe it was because of the long talk she'd had with Nick, maybe it was because of what he'd said on the phone, a hint that she might not be the only one considering taking their friendship a little further. Either way, she's far more relaxed than she was on Monday, and the feeling doesn't ebb when Nick sends her a text message just as she's about to leave work. 

"Guess who's working late again?" it says, followed by a frowny face emoji. 

She sends back a sad face, followed by, "Good luck with the case." 

"We need it," he replies. Another message follows seconds later. "Talk to you tomorrow? I hope." 

A smiley face is all the response that that needs. 

As it happens, he does talk to her the next day, but not over the phone and not late at night either. Instead, Ellie is sitting at her cubicle, her earbuds in her ears to shut out any unnecessary noises that might distract her. She's fathoms deep in translating a particular piece of text - there's something off about the context or maybe something familiar and she just can't put her finger on what it is - when Flynn flashes the desk light in her direction. She blinks at the bright light, jumps at the distraction and she can't hide the fact that she's annoyed at being disturbed because god damn it, she feels like the answer was just there, just out of her reach... 

Her head snaps up, all ready to give Flynn a piece of her mind. 

But when she looks up, it's not Flynn she sees first. 

It's Nick, standing in front of her desk, his eyes bright, his lips pursed the same way they are when Mila is telling him something that she considers vitally important and he's trying to keep back his laughter, or at the very least, his grin. He's wearing the same dark jacket that's so familiar from soccer practices, a black t-shirt and blue jeans and there's a tell tale bulge under his jacket that Ellie's never seen when he's climbing the bleachers towards her. 

He's not alone either. Another man is standing beside him, wearing a charming grin and a suit and tie, holding up his NCIS badge. "Here she is," Flynn says as he makes himself scarce and even though she's still staring at Nick, it's the other agent who does the talking. "Ellie Bishop? I'm Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo, this is Special Agent Nick Torres, NCIS. We'd like to talk to you for a moment." 

"Although if it's not convenient..." Nick jerks his chin towards the earbuds dangling from her hand. She'd told him once, she remembers, about using them in the office, possibly in the context that Flynn never remembered to flash the damn desk light at her when she was wearing them and he was constantly scaring her out of her wits. "We can come back later." 

Agent DiNozzo looks at him strangely, brows knitting in a frown. It’s safe to say that he disagrees with Nick entirely, can’t understand why he’d say something like that. "I think I can make the time for you," Ellie hears herself say as she stands up and Nick's sangfroid breaks as he grins at her. 

She's grinning right back at him and DiNozzo looks from one to the other, his frown deepening before a look of comprehension dawns on his face. "Wait..." He raises his index finger, waves it between the two of them. "NSA... blonde... Ellie..." He pauses and Nick looks at him. He's frowning now, looking almost wary. "This is..." A pause, slight, but significant, and long enough for Nick's frown to deepen to a glare. "Delilah's friend," DiNozzo finishes and Ellie knows, like she knows her own name, that that was not what he'd been about to say. 

"It's nice to meet you." She holds out her hand to him and he shakes it firmly. "How can I help NCIS?" 

DiNozzo and Nick exchange a glance. "What can you tell us," asks Nick and she's surprised; she thought DiNozzo would have taken the lead, "about Abdul Kassir?" 

Ellie blinks. "He was a low level henchman of Benham Parsa," she says. "Or at least that's how he started... as the Brotherhood of Doubt grew and the attacks started getting more serious, gathering more attention, some of us were convinced that he was Parsa's right hand man, we could just never prove it. When Parsa was killed two years ago, he went to ground, there's been no sighting of him for months now..." Her voice trails off as she looks between the two men, both of them nodding, Nick looking impressed at how she was able to reel that off. Then it clicks in her mind : the two of them showing up here, the major case that Nick's been working overtime on. "Or has there?" 

DiNozzo nods. "A large quantity of weapons grade plutonium was reported missing last week," he says. "Kassir's fingerprints were found at the scene." 

"He wouldn't have made a mistake like that." Ellie is sure of that. Parsa had been meticulous about schooling his lieutenants in forensic counter measures; there was no way that anyone trained by him would be so sloppy. 

"We agree. We think it was a calling card. To let us know that he's planning something." Nick's jaw is tight. "Like he's daring us to stop him." 

"Dare?" He's lost her. "Why would he dare-"

"Because our boss is the one who killed Parsa," DiNozzo says and that stops Ellie in her tracks. That makes an awful lot of sense. "We know you did a lot of work on helping to track down Parsa the last time. We were hoping that you'd take a look through these." DiNozzo holds up a flash drive. "Bank details, transcripts of surveillance records, audio files... see if anything jumps out at you." 

Ellie is already reaching for the drive. "No problem." 

"The audio files are in Pashto," Nick says as she studies it. "Do you have someone here who'll be able to-"

"I speak Pashto." It's hard to say who looks more surprised, Nick or DiNozzo. 

"You do?" Nick's looking at her like he's never seen her before and Ellie can't help herself. She knows he's Nick, her friend, knows he doesn't mean anything by it but she's had men doubting her intelligence all her life and her response is immediate, instinctive. 

"I speak six languages," she tells them and it'll never get old, how people's jaws drop when they hear that. "I can get by in a few more." 

Nick narrows his eyes but she can see the smile that he's trying to hide. "And why do I feel like your idea of getting by is radically different to mine?" 

She doesn't touch that one, just grins at him and beside him, Tony gives a low whistle. "Ziva speaks ten languages," he says and Ellie's not sure if he's talking to her and Nick or if he's thinking out loud. "I didn't think I'd ever meet anyone who came close to that." 

This time, Nick doesn't try to keep the grin off his face. "You gonna tell her she's got competition?" 

"No." DiNozzo doesn't laugh, in fact he looks faintly scandalised at the suggestion. "Because I don't want to be there when she finds that out." Nick does laugh at that and Ellie must look as confused as she feels because Tony looks at her and continues, "My wife is ex-Mossad. She can kill me with her pinky and a paperclip." He stops, tilts his head, obviously considering something. "Oh, who am I kidding, the paperclip is optional." 

Ellie finds herself smiling, finds herself liking this man. She looks back at Nick when she hears him clearing his throat. "So... you'll... let us know what you find? Agent Flynn said that whatever you're working on can wait..."

Which means Ellie's going to have to wait to solve her puzzle, but the idea of helping Nick to solve his - and yes, she can admit it, getting their usual nightly chats back on track - isn't without appeal. "I'll get right on it," she promises. 

"Excellent." DiNozzo speaks after a moment of silence, his voice a little louder, a little more strident than she might have expected. "We will let you get started." He nods at her, then looks at Nick. A funny little smile plays across his face and Ellie knows that look, has seen it before, she just can't place where. "I'd leave you my card, but I'm fairly sure you already have Nick's number?" 

Nick's glare is strong enough to melt ice and that's when the look clicks with Ellie. The look that was on Tony's face was the same one that two of her brothers wore any time the third brought a new girlfriend home for the first time. And the look on Nick's face? That wasn't a million miles away from the expression that the third brother ended up wearing as a consequence of the other two's shit stirring. "We'd better get back," Nick grinds out, teeth clenched tightly. A muscle in his jaw ticks as he glares at DiNozzo but when his gaze swings back to Ellie, it softens instantly. "Thank you." 

"No problem."

And if she doesn't take her eyes off them until they disappear from sight? Well, no-one needs to know. 

Before she starts looking into the NCIS files, she skims through the NSA files - both her own and others - on Benham Parsa and Abdul Kassir. Her photographic memory hasn’t let her down, she discovers, because she remembers most of the details exactly, but she knows it won’t do any harm to refresh them in her memory. Then, armed with pen and paper, she plugs in the flash drive DiNozzo had handed her and starts to read. 

There’s a serious amount of information there, so much so that she doesn’t get more than halfway through it by the time her shifts end. She usually doesn’t take work home with her but she does that night, makes dinner for herself and Jess, checks the homework, reads a story and puts Jess to bed before setting back down at the kitchen table and continuing to read. 

By the time she gets to the end of the information she has pages of notes and a nagging feeling that she’s missing something. 

She scans her notes again, just to be sure but still nothing leaps out at her. It doesn’t until she slides into bed and turns off the lights and the numbers on the the display of her bedside alarm clock glow in the dark. 

The numbers. 

That’s what was familiar. 

Everything clicks into place and she’s throwing off the covers and making her way to her laptop, suddenly wide awake. She stays there until near three in the morning, tracking down every piece of evidence she can find to support her hunch and once she’s done that, she picks up her phone, wonders if she could call Nick. 

No, she decides. He’d texted her at eleven to say Gibbs had just sent them home, that Lucia had Mila and he was going to owe her all the favours after this. Let him sleep, she thinks and she does the same, sleep claiming her minutes after she’s fallen into bed and closed her eyes. 

She’s not sure when Nick will be up, he doesn’t have to do the school run after all. She does, though, and she sends Nick a text message as she eats her cereal. “I might have something,” she types, chewing her lip as uncertainty takes her. What if what made sense in the wee small hours of the morning makes no sense in the cold light of day? “Can we meet?” 

He texts her back within ten minutes with a time and the name of a coffee shop that Google Maps tells her is halfway between NSA headquarters and NCIS. One smiley face later and she’s chivving Jess up the stairs to brush her teeth and do her hair and they’re both out the door in plenty of time for school. 

When she gets to the coffee shop, Nick is already there. Sitting in a booth, two cups of coffee are sitting on the table in front of him and she’s not sure if one is for her or if they’re both for him because he looks as tired as she feels. He frowns when she sits down across from him, his hand lifting from the side of his cup and reaching towards her cheek. Only for an instant though, then it’s like he catches himself and lowers his hand to his cup again. “You look exhausted,” he tells her and her lips twist because she’d applied an extra layer of makeup and she’d thought she looked pretty presentable actually. He slides a cup of coffee closer to her. “Please tell me you haven’t been up all night.”

“No,” she admits, taking a sip. Again, it’s just the way she likes it. “Just a lot of it.” 

He looks like her words physically pain him. “Ellie, you know that’s not necessary, right? We-”

She doesn’t let him finish. “I was in bed in plenty of time,” she tells him and she tries to ignore how he blinks when she interrupts him, how his head does a little wobble from side to side, like there’s an image he’s trying to get out of his head as quickly as possible. “Mostly because I couldn’t find anything useful.” His face fell for an instant, then he frowned, like he was wondering why she’d called him. “But the second I turned off the light, it hit me.” She pulls a sheaf of papers from her laptop bag - she’d printed out her findings, hoping the whirr of the printer wouldn’t wake Jess, knowing that looking at NSA material on her laptop in public wasn’t the best idea. “Look at this... and this... and this.” She spreads out the pages in front of him, pointing to each highlighted piece in turn. 

Nick reads what she’s pointing at but his frown only deepens. “Ellie, you may have translated these but for all the sense they make to me, they might as well still be in Pashto.” 

Which, to be honest, Ellie had been expecting.

“When you came to my office yesterday, I was looking into some intel we’d been given from Pakistan. Obviously in code, words beside other words making sentences that made no sense, strings of numbers but there was something about them, something familiar. And last night, I remembered. One of the number strings was the map co-ordinates for the village where Parsa grew up. I remembered it from three years ago.” 

Nick holds up a hand, stops her in her tracks. “You remembered a grid reference from three years ago?” There’s a frown on his face that she’s rarely seen before, but his voice is tinged with amazement. 

The combination makes Ellie’s cheeks heat. “I’m good with numbers,” she says simply. Nick chuckles, runs his hand over his chin and nods in agreement. “Anyway, I checked out some other strings of numbers. They all correspond to birthplaces of other cell members, and they were used over and over again. That got me thinking, what if they were using them as code names? But there were other co-ordinate references too, and when I tracked them down, each of them correlated to a place where there had been a terrorist attack.” 

Nick’s eyes gleam as he leans across the table. “How recent are we talking about?” 

Ellie sighs. “The pattern holds until two years ago. Then there are still map co-ordinates but none relating to cell members’ birthplaces. They obviously have a new code that we’ll have to break. But the placenames I could find still tally with attack sites, either planned or foiled. I need to see what came through on the wires over night but this could lead us to the plutonium.” Tilting her head, she asks the only question she needs an answer to. “Do you think it’s enough for you to bring to your boss?” 

“No.” Her face falls but he’s already standing up, folding the papers in one smooth movement. “It’s enough for us to bring it to Gibbs.” He lifts his cup of coffee. “Glad I got these to go.” When Ellie doesn’t move, he inclines his head towards the door. “Come on, let’s go.” 

Ellie stays where she is, staring up at him. “You want me to help present this to your boss?” 

Nick actually laughs, stifles it hastily when he realises she’s serious. “No, I want you to present it to my boss,” he tells her. “You did the work, this is your lead. Besides, I’m not entirely sure I understand it all. So unless you’ve got the Cliff Notes version in your purse, I suggest you stand up and come with me.” A smile plays around his lips suddenly, not a million miles away from the one he has in the photo of the two of them having ice cream. “Unless you want me to carry you out of here.” 

He’s joking. She knows he’s joking. 

But she can still picture it in her head and a rush of heat surges through her. “When you put it like that...” she says, pushing herself up and he affects a disappointed expression. 

“We’ll save that for another day,” he says, his hand at her back, leading her out. She shivers and hopes he didn’t notice. “I’ll drive.” 

He easily negotiate the streets between the diner and the Naval Yard, signs her in with a visitors pass and walks her through a veritable maze of corridors before they step onto an elevator. "You got one of those little doohickeys?" he asks, holding his fingers a couple of inches apart and she makes a guess. 

"A flash drive?" she asks, taking it out of the compartment in her bag where she'd stowed it carefully. He grins and takes it from her. She shakes her head. "You're really not great with the technology, are you?" 

Nick shrugs. "That's why we make a great team," he tells her. "We complement each other." Ellie can't help but think how she likes the sound of that and, luckily, before the words find their way out of her mouth, the elevator dings and the doors start to open. "Ready?" Nick asks but he doesn't give her a chance to say yes or no, is already out the door, giving her no choice but to follow him. 

She blinks when she steps out into the light because man, that's a lot of orange. Sure, she might often have thought that the NSA's beige colour scheme was a bit on the bland side, but she can't imagine working in these walls every day. The bright colour makes her eye ache and she tells herself firmly that that's the reason she concentrates on Nick's ass as he leads her towards a set of desks. 

"Ellie!" Tim sees her first. "What are you-"

"Don't ask questions, McGee," Nick says, tossing him the flash drive. Tim catches it, looks at it like he's never seen one before. "Come on." Nick makes circles with his hands, one eventually gesturing towards a massive plasma screen between two desks. "Work your magic." 

"Agent Bishop." At the desk immediately to Ellie's right, Agent DiNozzo stands up. His eyes travel up and down her body, landing on the takeout cup of coffee in her hand before he shifts his gaze over to Nick and the matching cup of coffee he's holding. DiNozzo tilts his head, narrows his eyes. It's all very exaggerated and having grown up with three brothers it looks to Ellie like he's purposely trying to push Nick's buttons. "Wait, did you two have breakfast together?" 

Nick glares at him and once more Ellie is reminded of life with her brothers. The glare only lasts for a second though, then Nick twists to look at the desk across from Tim's. "Where's Gibbs?" he asks. "Ellie has something." 

"I hope it's more than coffee." A voice, brusque and no nonsense, enters the conversation and Ellie jumps as a man sweeps past her. Tall and broad shouldered, he has silver hair and an impatient expression when he turns and eyeballs Nick. "Well?"

“Gibbs, this is Ellie Bishop, NSA. She has a lead on how we can find Kassir.” 

Silence fills the air and Gibbs turns a flinty gaze on her. “Well?” he says and, when her throat seizes up and words fail her, he looks over at Nick. “Does she talk?” 

Nick steps closer to her but in front of her, putting himself between her and Gibbs. “And talk and talk...” His lips curl in a familiar smile and just like that, she feels better, on more familiar ground suddenly. 

Just as she’s about to speak, a new voice joins the conversation. “If it’s about Kassir, I’d be interested in this too.” Ellie’s head twists towards the space between Gibbs’s desk and what must be Nick’s, and the man who’s standing up behind the partition. He buttons his suit jacket as he stands up and comes around to join them and as she stands beside Nick, Ellie can almost feel his hackles rising. “Clayton Reeves, MI6... we suspect Kassir has his fingers in a few pies in our neck of the woods as well.” 

Taking a deep breath, Ellie launches into the same explanation she’d given Nick in the coffee shop, slowing down her speech and putting in more details. It’s easier with Tim clicking through the information from the flash drive, putting it up on the large plasma screen, highlighting each piece of information as she talks about it. DiNozzo and Gibbs ask her about her findings and she answers them all easily and while DiNozzo and Nick are smiling, Gibbs has not changed expression in the slightest. 

Reeves, on the other hand, is almost gleeful. “You got all that from map co-ordindates you saw three years ago?” His voice is filled with what sounds like wonder and he looks impressed too. They all do actually, apart from Gibbs, and Nick is smiling with the same expression he gets when Mila scores a goal at soccer. 

“I’m good with numbers.” It’s the same thing Ellie said to Nick earlier on but that’s not good enough for Reeves, who lets out a low whistle. 

“That brain of yours is seriously impressive,” he tells her and Ellie can feel herself start to blush. It’s the accent, she tells herself - she grew up watching Star Trek The Next Generation with three older brothers and Patrick Stewart’s voice, and any like it, has been a weak spot for her ever since. 

Nick clears his throat. “Can we get back to the topic at hand please?” he asks. It could be Ellie’s imagination but he’s looking a little green around the gills and she’s seen that expression before too but she just can’t place it. 

“Ellie, you think there’s another code in there? Can you crack it?” Tim stands, but he’s looking at Nick when he speaks and it’s Nick who answers. 

“She can crack it.” His jaw is set, his voice is calm, not a tremor of doubt. He sounds more confident than Ellie feels. 

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Gibbs looks exasperated. "Get started." 

Ellie nods quickly, wanting nothing more than the peace and quiet of the NSA, her cubicle, her ear buds and Flynn bothering her. "I'll get back to the office and get right on it..." she says, taking a step backwards in the direction of the elevator. 

She should have known it wouldn't be that easy. "No time for that, Bishop," Gibbs says. He juts his chin in Nick's direction. "Set her up in the conference lounge... get her whatever she needs." 

Nick doesn't seem surprised by the order. "No problem." 

A second later, he's standing beside Ellie, all ready to shepherd her away somewhere and she's staring around the bullpen, her head spinning. "I'll need to ask my boss..." 

"I'll tell your boss." Gibbs is already sitting at his desk, reaching for his phone. "Let me know the second you have anything." 

It's obviously a dismissal but Ellie is still too stunned to process it and it takes Nick actually tugging at her sleeve for her to move. "Conference room is this way," he says quietly and if anyone notices the little touch, the way his lips curl up as he talks to her, they don't comment on it. In fact, Tim and DiNozzo are both concentrating on whatever might be on their computer screens. "Come on." 

Falling into step beside him, Ellie keeps her voice down as she tucks a strand of hair behind her ears. "Is he always like that?" 

Nick smirks. "Gibbs is an... acquired taste," he allows. "Like a pit bull but with a heart of gold." Ellie narrows her eyes, sure he's pulling her leg and Nick actually looks nervous for a second. His head whips around and he visibly relaxes. "I thought he was behind me for a minute there." 

“He sneaks up behind people?” Ellie makes a mental note to watch out for that. 

“He’s stealthy. Like a ninja.” Nick actually shudders and Ellie bites back a smile, sure there’s a story or two there somewhere. If there is, Nick doesn’t tell it, instead stopping at a door and opening it for her, stepping back to let her in. “This will be our home for the rest of the day. Or until you work some magic and find where Kassir is hiding out. And let me tell you, I really hope you work some magic soon.” 

About a dozen comments fly through Ellie’s mind and none of them are workplace appropriate. She settles her face into a sympathetic expression, heads for a chair facing the door. “It’s a tough one?” 

“Gibbs is getting pressure from the director, who’s getting pressure from SecNav, who’s getting pressure from...” He circles his hand, indicating the never ending spiral. “And you know what they say flows downhill.” He stops talking, blinks and she gets the feeling that he's seeing her for the first time, like he'd forgotten who was standing in front of him. "Sorry... Language." 

Ellie lifts an eyebrow but doesn't attempt to hide her smile. "I grew up with three older brothers," she reminds him. "That doesn't even count in the top twenty worst pieces of language I've ever heard." 

Nick narrows his eyes. "I'm intrigued." 

"Hey, I speak six languages, remember? I can get creative too." She's not even joking as she pulls out her laptop and sets it on the table in front of her. When she looks up again, Nick looks stunned, his eyes wide as he waggles his head from side to side, looking her up and down. She bites her lip because she really wants to continue this conversation, finding it so easy to fall into their usual conversation and banter. But they're not in the bleachers at soccer practice, or in the living room at his house. They're in NCIS headquarters and they have a job to do and, apparently, Nick has a boss who likes to keep his employees on their toes. "But... later." 

She sits down at the table but Nick still looks faintly dazed. "Yeah," he says. "Later. Sure." He's silent for a moment while she logs into her NSA account, pulls up her files. When she looks up at him, he's still standing there and only when her eyes meet his does he seem to snap back to reality. Hooking his thumb over his shoulder he says, "I'm going to go get the files... you'll be ok here?" 

Ellie nods, knowing that once she gets immersed in her files, she won't even know if he's there or not. "Sure," she says but he still seems to linger for a few seconds longer than he should, just watching her. 

Once the door closes behind him, she gets down to the serious business of calling up the files she’d stopped working on in the wee small hours of the morning. She doesn’t put her ear buds in - this isn’t the NSA and she doesn’t know what the policy on that is. Besides, the room is silent - or at least it is until the door bursts open. Ellie’s eyes move in that direction, expecting it to be Nick but the woman standing in the frame is about as far away from Nick as it’s humanly possible to be. 

With her jet black hair pulled up into perfectly symmetrical pigtails, her pale skin showing off dark lips and the most intricate neck tattoo Ellie has ever seen, the woman is wearing a white lab coat and, underneath it, what looks like a black corset. Her skirt is some pattern of black and red tartan, barely hitting her knees. Not much leg is on display though, courtesy of a pair of black lace up boots that have heels that could easily double as stilts. 

All Ellie can do is stare - nobody like this works at NSA. 

“Hi. Sorry.” The woman’s eyes flit around the room like she’s looking for someone but they never drift far from Ellie. “I thought McGee was in here.” 

Ellie shakes her head. “He was at his desk a few minutes ago,” she offers. She’s sure this woman must know where that is, what with the NCIS badge around her neck. 

“Oh. Ok.” The woman doesn’t move. “I’m Abby, by the way. Sciuto. Forensic scientist.” 

Which explains that lab coat. Ellie smiles. “Ellie Bishop,” she says, holding out her hand. “NSA.” 

Is it her imagination or does Abby’s smile get wider and brighter as she all but bounds over to the desk and shakes her hand firmly? Before she can say anything though, Nick walks in through the still open door. “Abby,” he says slowly, almost thoughtfully. “What are you doing here?” Except he says it like he knows the answer and Ellie knows him well enough to detect amusement under the surface. 

“Looking for McGee.” Abby straightens up, gives him a quick, tight smile. 

“He’s at his desk. I just came from there.” Nick purses his lips. “I see you two have met.” That settles it, he’s definitely amused. Ellie just can’t work out why. 

Or, recalling her conversation with Delilah, the way DiNozzo looked at her and Nick yesterday, the way he asked them about breakfast this morning, maybe she can. 

She has to look down, press her lips together to hide a smile so she hears rather than sees Abby nod. “His desk. Right. I’ll head there then.” 

“You do that.” Nick doesn’t sit down until she leaves, and he watches her go, makes sure the door is closed behind her. Only then does he turn to Ellie. “Well then, Miss Genius... let’s go.” 

They set to work and they keep on going, only making slight headway, a big breakthrough seeming like it’s nowhere in sight. Sometime in the mid-morning, DiNozzo’s head appears around the door and when he sees their glum faces, he tells Nick that he’s going out to the sandwich bar at lunchtime and to let him know what they both want. Which on one hand, Ellie understands - they can’t afford the time to leave - but she’s starting to wonder if a little fresh air might revive her senses a little. 

She pushes the computer away with a scowl on her face just past midday, runs her fingers through her hair and stands up. “You’re planning on running away on me?” Nick lays down his pen and looks up at her, and how can he still be smiling after a morning of chasing their tails?

“Jumping out the window is looking pretty good right now,” is all she says, before tacking on quickly, “No offence.” 

“None taken.” Nick leans back in his chair, holds up his hands. “Besides, they’re bulletproof glass, so go ahead, knock yourself out. Literally.” 

That at least raises a smile. “I just hate this,” she says. “At the NSA, anything we analyse, it’s all conjecture, far in the future. This...”

“Hey.” Nick’s voice is calm, completely in control. “We’ll get there.” Once again he doesn't sound like there's the faintest doubt in his mind as his eyes meet hers unblinkingly. "We got this." 

Ellie steeples her hands, brings them to her lips and sucks in a deep breath. "Ok." 

Nick opens his mouth to say something else but before he can, there's a knock at the door, which opens before they can say, "Come in." Ellie's expecting it to be DiNozzo with lunch, but while there is a man there holding two paper bags that smell better than Ellie can possibly describe, it's not DiNozzo. Similar height, though with a completely different outfit, surgical scrubs rather than a sharp suit, this man's eyes are dancing behind his glasses, a beaming smile on his face. "Lunch is served," he says as he lays the bags on the table and Nick narrows his eyes. 

"I thought Tony was getting lunches today," he says and the other man nods quickly. 

"Oh, he was, he was. I just just passing by this way, thought I'd save him a trip. You know, you guys are so busy and all..." His eyes fall on Ellie then and he doesn’t even try to hide his interest. "I'm Jimmy Palmer." 

Ellie takes his offered hand. "Ellie Bishop," she says although she has a feeling that Jimmy already knows that, that her presence here and her friendship with Nick has made the rounds of office gossip. "And thank you." She reaches for one of the bags, not even caring which one is hers and which ones is Nick's. They're probably going to end up sharing anyway. 

"You should stand back, Jimmy." Nick's not looking at the other man and Ellie can hear the smile in his voice. "Not wise to get between this one and her food." 

It doesn't even occur to Ellie to deny it so she just shrugs instead. Although she does shoot Nick a sour look, just because she can. It doesn’t have any effect though; he just snickers. Jimmy’s eyes move between them and his grin grows. “How’s it going here?” 

“A bit slow.” Nick speaks before Ellie can. “But we’re making progress.” 

Ellie knows better than to point out that that’s a bald faced lie. Jimmy doesn’t know that though, takes Nick at entirely face value. “Great. Well, I’ll let you get back to it.” He takes a step in the direction of the door, then stops and turns back to them, clicking his fingers like somethings just occurred to him. “By the way, Brianna wanted to me tell you that if you want us to take Mila this weekend, we have no plans. You know how much she loves playing with Victoria.” 

Figuring that Jimmy is one of the buddies with younger kids that Nick had mentioned, Ellie looks up with a grin. Nick’s not smiling though, is looking at Jimmy like he’s never seen him before. “Thanks, man,” he says. “I’ll... ah... I’ll let you know.” 

“It’s no trouble.” Jimmy’s eyes land on Ellie before jumping back to Nick. “No trouble at all.” 

Whatever else he might have said, or whatever Nick might have said back is lost to the mists of time, as another knock comes to the door. "Come in," Nick calls and it might be Ellie's imagination, but he sounds a tiny bit exasperated. 

The man who opens the door, though, doesn't look the least bit perturbed. Wearing a long, camel-coloured coat and a wide brimmed hat, he smiles at Nick, his eyes twinkling behind his glasses. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, Agent Torres," he says and Ellie blinks at the English accent. "But I was heading out for a bite to eat when I remembered that I bought this over the weekend for young Mila." He holds up a paper bag, approaching Nick and sliding it across the table. "I saw it and rather thought she might enjoy it. And that you might enjoy something to keep her occupied for a while." 

Nick frowns as he takes the bag from the man, which is the exact opposite of how Ellie is feeling as she looks up at him. Accent aside, he reminds her strongly of her grandfather who she'd adored as a child and when she looks up at him, she finds herself grinning. The urge to grin grows even stronger when Nick opens the bag and pulls out a "Harry Potter" colouring book - both Mila and Jess are currently reading the first book and obsessed isn't a strong enough word. 

"Oh, she's going to love that." The words are out before she can stop them and all heads in the room turn sharply in her direction. Two sets of eyebrows - Jimmy's and the older man's - rise, while Nick just nods. 

"She will," he says. "Thanks, Ducky." Then, to Ellie, "Ellie Bishop, NSA, this is Doctor Mallard... our medical examiner." 

"It's nice to meet you, Doctor," Ellie begins, but Doctor Mallard speaks over her. 

"Oh, my dear, there's no need to be so formal." He says it with a chuckle as his two hands close over both of hers. "Please, call me Ducky." 

Though it's not something she would usually do, a giggle bursts free from Ellie's lips. "Ok, then, Ducky," she replies and he fairly beams.

He glances over at Nick and his smile fades only a little. "Well, I don't want to disturb your hard work... I would offer some assistance, but I'm afraid that the computer revolution has quite passed me by..." 

"Well, I'm sure I could never do your job, so that makes us even." Ellie doesn't even have to think about that - she's never been great with blood. The idea of actually cutting open a dead body is enough to make her stomach turn over and she pushes it away, otherwise she'll never eat her lunch. 

That makes Ducky chuckle again and he and Jimmy exchange a look as they leave the room together. Sitting back in her chair, Ellie pulls her lunch closer to her, accepting the can of soda Nick offers her. "That was really nice of him," she says, jutting her chin towards the colouring book lying on the table. "Jess is going to be pretty jealous." 

Nick gives her a lopsided smile. "I'm sure Mila will share it with her." He pops the top on his own can of soda. "They share everything else, right?" 

"True." Ellie picks up the books, flicks through it, pauses on a picture of what she recognises as Harry's father and his three friends during their time in Hogwarts - what can she say, she's read all the books, has only been waiting for Jess to be old enough to read them too. The four friends are drawn at the bottom of the page, their four animal forms floating in the sky above them. Four words are written underneath and she reads them out loud, an idea forming, hazy and light, in the back of her mind. "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs..." 

"Ellie, please..." Nick speaks through a mouthful of sandwich. "Don't go all geeky on me now... we have work to do."

"No... no, Nick that's it." Ellie pushes herself bolt upright in her seat, lays the colouring book down on the side, reaching for her computer. "The same words kept coming up over and over again in Pashto... I can't believe I didn't figure it out before..." She's typing faster than she can speak and Nick leans in close to look at what she's doing. 

"You know I can't read this, right?" 

"I'll run a translation program," she promises. "We know that part of the code revolves around groups of numbers that translate to grid references. But these words here... they're animals." A press of a button and the Pashto turns into English, words like "hawk", "wolf" and "jackal" appear. "Those words appear over and over again, in all of the transcripts. Both before Parsa was captured and after." 

Nick is nodding and frowning all at the same time. "And this helps us how?"

"Because, if we cross reference this chatter with our intel, we can figure out who is who... and if we put them together with the grid references we already have..."

"We can find out where Kassir is and what he's planning." Nick's got with the program now and he's already pulling stacks of paper towards him. "Tell me what I'm looking for and how to help."

That's exactly what she does and once they've figured out what they're looking for, the pieces fall into place easily. A couple of hours later and the two of them are racing towards the squad room, Nick leading the way and Ellie barely keeping up. "Gibbs, we have him." Nick tosses Tim a flash drive which Tim quickly projects up onto the plasma screen. "He's in a warehouse down by the docks..."

"You're sure?" It's DiNozzo who stands up, but he's not looking at Nick, he's looking at Ellie. 

Still, it's Nick who answers. "We're sure." He tilts his head in Ellie's direction. "She can explain it better, something to do with codes and code names and cross referencing..." He stops talking in a hurry when Gibbs's desk drawer clangs shut. "But this is the address." 

"Suit up, full body armour." Gibbs is already on his feet, heading for the elevator. "Reeves, you're with us." Clayton pops up on the side of the partition, his phone already to his ear. 

"I'm on to MI6 now, they'll meet us there." His eyes meet Ellie and his smile is warm. "Nice work, Agent Bishop." 

Ellie can feel her cheeks heating, even as she feels like her head is spinning, something to do with the way that Nick, Tim and DiNozzo are all grabbing stuff out of their desk and she's just standing in the middle of all the desks. The heats turns into a full fledged fire as Gibbs stalls in his movement, half turns and looks her up and down. "Yeah," he says, and then, looking directly at Nick, "Not bad for a soccer mom." 

Nick freezes, his gun halfway to its holster and Ellie knows that her eyes are at least as wide as saucers. DiNozzo hides a snicker - not very successfully - and even Tim looks like he's biting the inside of his cheek. Gibbs, though, is already on his way to the elevator and Tim and DiNozzo follow him. It takes Nick a moment to move again and when he does, he pauses at Ellie's side, squeezes her elbow. "He knows about that?" Ellie asks and Nick just shrugs. 

"Gibbs knows everything," he says. "And trust me, you just got a compliment." The elevator dings and Nick's head turns in that direction. Ellie follows his gaze, watches as the doors close. When she looks back to Nick, he's staring at her, his eyes dark and serious. "You'll be here when we get back?"

She nods. "I'll write up our findings into something more..." She waves her hands. "Admissible in a court of law." 

Nick squeezes her elbow again, looks strangely reluctant to leave. "I have to go." 

Ellie swallows hard, her stomach churning. "Be safe out there." 

Another nod and then he's heading to the elevator. Ellie doesn't move until the doors close behind him and then she makes herself head back to the conference room where she writes her report and tries to ignore her churning stomach. 

She doesn't breathe easy until her cell phone beeps and when she looks at it, she sees Nick's name on the screen. It's a simple text message, two words. 

"Got him." 

A couple of hours later, her report is done and she's back in the squad room, having handed a printed out report to Gibbs and a flash drive with all her data to Tim. "I've got to hand it to you, Ellie," Tim tells her, "we couldn't have done it without you." 

Ellie grins at him. "Tell Delilah she owes me one for letting you get back home to her." 

"If only." Tim rolls his eyes. "Gibbs and I are going to interrogate Kassir, see what we can get out of him." He tilts his head, considering. "Well, Gibbs is going to see what he can get out of him. I'm mostly along for the ride." Ellie tilts her heads, gives him a little pout of sympathy. "Hey, it’s ok, my time will come..." He waves his finger between DiNozzo and Nick. "These two have little people to get home to." 

"Tali is very excited that Abba is going to do the bedtime story tonight," DiNozzo says. "Though perhaps not as excited as Ziva is...."

"And if that's a prompt for you to tell us all about you and Ziva, I beg you to reconsider." Nick is already shouldering his bag. "We've heard enough."

"Amen." The sincerity in Tim's voice can't possibly be faked. 

"Agreed." Gibbs comes down the stairs, strides towards his desk. "I thought you two would have been long gone," he says, looking between Nick and DiNozzo. "Give your girls a hug from me." 

"On it, Boss," DiNozzo says. 

"Definitely." There's a smile on Nick's face and it seems to broaden as his gaze slides from Gibbs and lands on Ellie. 

"Agent Bishop." Something in the way Gibbs talks makes her want to stand up a little bit straighter. "Thank you for all your help." He jerks his chin down in a nod, the edges of his lips twitching. "If you ever decide you need a change of job, let me know." 

Of all the things she ever expected him to say, that was nowhere close to being on the list. She didn't know what to say, but Nick saved her the trouble. "What, you'd make this a five man team?" 

Gibbs lifts one eyebrow, stares Nick down, his lips twitching slightly more. "Someone can always transfer, Torres." He places all his emphasis on Nick's name, making his meaning perfectly clear and Nick's jaw drops in theatrical - or maybe not so theatrical - shock. His hand goes to his chest and he looks among his team-mates before looking back at Ellie. 

"Oh, so that's how it is," he says and DiNozzo doesn't even try to hide his grin. 

"I think you should quit while you're... no, sorry, that ship has sailed," he says and Nick shakes his head. 

"I'm going home," he says. "To my daughter. Who loves me." He stops when he's standing beside Ellie. "Come on... I'll drive you back to your car." Ellie falls into step beside him, stops as he does, looking back at Tony. "You coming, man?" 

"You go on ahead." Tony points to his computer. "I just have one thing to finish off..." 

Nick pauses for a second, but only a second, and then he's off again, Ellie falling into step beside him. Once the elevator doors close behind them, Nick looks across at her. "So, I may have promised Mila that once this thing was all wrapped up, I'd send out for Case Closed Pizza." There's a crooked grin on his face and she knows what he's asking before he even says the words. "You and Jess want to join us?"

Ellie leans back against the elevator wall, lets a deep breath out. "I would like that," she says. "If you're sure you're not too tired." 

His eyes meet hers, lock there and Ellie couldn't look away if she wanted to. She doesn't want to. 

"I will never be too tired for you and Jess." They are simple words but something in his voice, something in his eyes, makes them sound like a solemn promise. 

"Well then..." There's a sudden lump in her throat that it's hard to speak around but she manages it. "I'll meet you at your place." 

When she picks Jess up from daycare, her daughter is delighted to learn that they're going to Mila's house for dinner and no sooner have they arrived at Nick's house than Mila is throwing open the front door and the two girls are sprinting up the stairs. Ellie makes her own way into the kitchen, finds Nick standing in front of the refrigerator, a beer in each hand as he pushes the door closed with his hip. "I know you have to drive," he says. "But we're going to have food... and you can have one celebratory beer." He holds it out to her, quirks one eyebrow. 

Once again, she doesn't have to think twice. She takes the beer, her fingers brushing against his as she does so, and a spark of electricity runs up her spine. Because she's looking right at Nick, she doesn't miss how his pupils dilate, how he inhales sharply. He feels it too, she realises as she takes a step towards him. They don't break eye contact as he takes a step towards her too, his free hand moving to her waist. Nick's eyes drop to her lips and Ellie feels herself leaning in towards him...

Just then, the doorbell rings. 

"Pizza!" shriek two voices from upstairs.

Nick steps back, a reluctant grimace on his face. "Pizza."

"Pizza," Ellie echoes, a little short on breath and not hungry for the first time ever in her life. 

Still, she manages to eat her fair share of the pizza... ok, maybe a little more, because Nick ordered plenty. The girls also eat their fill, but still have room for ice cream afterwards - apparently, Nick takes his "case closed" celebrations pretty seriously. Conversation, as it always does, flows easily around the Torres dinner table and once everyone is finished, Mila and Jess are allowed to go upstairs, even if Ellie calls up after them, "Just for a little while." 

Nick snickers as he pours her a cup of coffee. "Yeah, good luck with that." He jerks his chin towards the living room. "C'mon, let's sit." 

He leads her across the hall, lays his coffee down on the table and drops down on the very comfortable couch with a groan. He closes his eyes, tilts his head back to rest against the back of the couch. "Man, I am wiped," he says and Ellie bites her lip as she lays her cup beside his. She doesn't sit down though. 

"You're tired," she says. "Maybe we should..." 

"Ellie." Opening his eyes, he locks his gaze with hers, says her name in a tone that makes her abandon any ideas of going anywhere. "I would really like you to stay." 

Ellie swallows hard, moves towards the couch on suddenly shaky legs and sits down beside him. She gives a little smile, which becomes a lot easier when he reaches out one hand, closes his fingers around hers. His skin is warm against hers, as warm as his eyes, making her shiver, and his voice, when he speaks, is lower than she's ever heard it. "I'm sorry about my team." 

She blinks, the words surprising a laugh out of her. "Why? They were really nice..."

"They were really present." Nick purses his lips, looking as if he's choosing his next words carefully, almost visibly rolling them around in his mouth before he speaks. "Jimmy has never brought me lunch before... or offered to babysit Mila. And Ducky has never bought her a present for no reason in his life." 

He sounds amused and the pieces fall into place, confirming the suspicions she's held since this afternoon. "And Abby wasn't looking for McGee, was she?"

"Oh, I have the feeling she knew exactly where he was. And where you were." His fingers tighten around hers as he takes a deep breath, lets it out slowly. "They all know Mila, obviously. They've all met her. They know about Sofia. And I date... Occasionally. Usually when my sister or Delilah decide they have someone I just have to meet." There's a dry lilt to his voice suddenly, accompanied by the roll of his eyes and the knowledge that she's not the only one that Delilah plays Cupid to makes Ellie laugh softly. She's actually surprised, in that case, that Delilah never tried fixing the two of them up - she thinks her friend must be mentally kicking herself right about now. "But it's never gone anywhere, and they know that." 

As he speaks, his thumb is running up and down over her knuckles and Ellie finds herself having to admit that it's making it a little hard to concentrate on what he's saying. "And then you show up... a beautiful blonde that I'm obviously close to..." His voice sounds teasing, the look in his eyes is anything but. "They get interested." He shrugs. "And then not only do you turn out to be drop dead gorgeous, but you're also this maths genius with a photographic memory, who speaks six languages and cracks the case we've been spinning our wheels on, who actually manages to impress Gibbs..." His voice trails off as he shakes his head, a broad grin on his face. "I think they pretty much want to adopt you." 

Ellie's still a little stuck on how he called her beautiful. Twice. Somewhere, she finds the wherewithal to tilt her head, to say "And how do you feel about that?" 

It comes out a lot more breathless than she was expecting, but Nick doesn't seem to have any complaints. "Ellie..." He exhales her name, making her shiver again, or that could be to do with the way that his free hand cups her cheek, the way his eyes drop to her lips. "I definitely do not want to adopt you." 

She giggles, he smiles and then he closes the distance between them, brings his lips to hers and the last thing she wants to do is laugh. In fact, anything that requires thinking becomes highly over-rated as his lips move against hers, as his hand slides from her cheek to the back of her head, his fingers tangling in her hair, holding her in place. His shirt is soft under her palms and she can feel the warmth of his body through the thin material, can feel his heart racing as her right hand slides up over it to curl over his shoulder. She sighs into the kiss, then gasps as his teeth find her bottom lip and maybe it's that noise that breaks the spell, or maybe it's the need for air, the need to breathe. Either way, she finds herself sitting an awful lot closer to Nick than she had been - practically sitting on his knee - her forehead pressed against his as the two of them try to catch their breath. 

"I really wish -" Nick's voice is a rough whisper. " “-that our girls weren't upstairs right now." 

Ellie laughs softly, cups his cheeks in her hands as she nods. "I agree." 

"So..." Nick slides his hand up and down her back. "If I were to ask you out to dinner... and I'm not talking about pizza or home cooking in my dining room..."

"I would say yes." Ellie doesn't let him finish and when his face lights up with the greatest smile she's ever seen, she's glad she didn't. 

"I have wanted to ask you that for a while now," he admits quietly. One hand is still cupping the back of her head, his fingertips running along her scalp and it's one of her new favourite feelings. "But I didn't want to..." He purses his lips, shrugs one shoulder like he's not sure of how to phrase it. Fortunately for him, Ellie knows exactly what he's trying to say. 

"Mess up a good thing." 

"Exactly." He sounds relieved, brushes a whispers of a kiss across her lips. "But after the last couple of days... working with you, my team shouting in my ear... seeing you tonight with Mila and Jess... all I could think was that I wouldn't mind if that's what I came home to after every rough case. And I figured that..."

Once again, Ellie cuts across him. "That if something did happen between us, not a lot would actually change?" She's borrowing Delilah's observation, less the part about amazing sex, but she's fairly sure her friend won't mind. In fact, she's fairly sure Delilah's only objection would be that she'd left out that particular part. 

"Well..." Nick purses his lips, his eyes twinkling as he tilts his head, draws her closer to him. "I'm hoping that one particular thing will change..." 

They lose track of time for a little while after that, though not as much as they would like. After all, they’re both parents, responsible adults, even if Ellie finds it hard to remember that when Nick’s body is pressed against her and his hand has made its way under her shirt, is tracing tiny patterns along the small of her back. Still, tomorrow is a school day for the girls, a work day for them so they pull apart, straighten their clothes and Ellie's hair and call Jess and Mila down. 

“I don’t want to go home!” Jess’s protest is as familiar as Mila’s pout and Ellie bites the inside of her cheek. 

“You have school tomorrow,” she reminds her. “And Nick is tired. We’ll come back soon, I promise.” 

“About that... we have something we wanted to ask you two.” Nick comes to stand beside her. He stops just short of taking his hand but she sees his fingers twitch as he stops himself from reaching for her. The two girls look at him, waiting. “What you would think if Aunt Lucia took you two for a little while some evening so that Ellie and I could go out. Just the two of us.” 

There’s a word he doesn’t use but Mila does. “Like a date?” she asks, her little face scrunching up in a frown. Ellie’s heart stutters - she’d expected the girls to be happy about it. 

“Yeah.” She knows Nick well enough to hear that he’s noticed the expression on Mila’s face as well. “Like a date.” He does reach out then, take Ellie’s hand and she’s grateful for it. 

Mila shrugs. “I guess.” 

Ellie’s eyes move to Jess, who’s staring at her hand holding Nick’s. “Jess?” 

“Eh.” Jess shrugs, makes a noise that could either indicate assent or be completely non-commital. “Whatever.” She looks at Mila, then back to Ellie. “Can I go get my stuff?” 

“Sure.” It’s Nick who answers and he waits until they’re out the door and up the stairs before he says, “Okay... I was not expecting that reaction.” 

Ellie’s stomach flips. “Me either... do you think-” She stops abruptly when the ceiling starts to vibrate with the distinct sound of feet jumping up and down. “What on earth...”

Nick’s across to the door in a second, with her hot on his heels but they both stop at the bottom of the stairs when a high pitched chanting reaches their ears. “We’re gonna be sisters, we’re gonna be sisters!” 

Ellie presses her lips together to stop laughter escaping, covers her lips with her hand for good measure. Nick grabs her other hand, drags her back to the living room and closes the door behind them. He presses her against it immediately after, his hands on her hips as hers go around his neck. “Sisters?” he murmurs. “No pressure then.” 

He’s teasing and Ellie can’t stop smiling. “You want pressure?” she asks. “We’ve got about five minutes before they come down here... what do you think we can do in that time?” 

Nick’s smile is blinding. “Baby, I do my best work under pressure.”

Ellie lifts one eyebrow. “So prove it,” she challenges and his smile turns positively ruthless. 

“Well, I’d hate to let you down...”

He doesn’t. 

Then again, she knows he never will.


End file.
